Faking It
by these-dreams-go-on
Summary: Caroline and Klaus are porn stars in Los Angeles looking to start their own production company whilst determinedly ignoring the growing feelings between them
1. Chapter 1

A/N- Here we go, as requested via tumblr. But, word or warning, I am going to try and make this as informed as possible.  
Disclaimer- I own nothing associated with the Vampire Diaries.

* * *

8am.

What the hell kind of producer expected porn stars to be on set at _8am_?

Absolute pricks.

Klaus parks his car and takes one last long sip of the coffee he'd picked up on the way.

He treasures the taste as it slides down his throat, even more so considering that he'll be chasing it down with mouthwash.

Common courtesy for the female co-star he'll be working with today.

It was supposed to be Celeste but considering how hard she'd been partying last night, he sincerely doubted she'd be making it out of bed any time soon.

When he's pushing it to the very last minute before he's late, he groans and pulls himself out of the car, stumbling into the street still cast in chilly shadow.

Klaus was lucky to be working at Fallen Angel, he knows this, but he really wishes that he could knock the lights out of the producer who'd decided on a starting time of 8am in the middle of bloody winter.

Even if they were in Los Angeles.

He double checks the address before walking up the footpath, because that would be embarrassing and knocks on the door.

No-one answers immediately and he checks his email again. He had a contract with Fallen Angel and was working four times a week, so it was quite possible that he'd got the location and date mixed up.

Except that everything checks out.

Frowning, he knocks again and takes a few steps back, wondering if he's meant to be heading round to the back when another car pulls up and a perky blonde clambers out, tossing her duffel bag over her shoulder and scampering up the lawn,

"I'm so _sorry_ ," she gasps as she reaches him, "Am I totally late?"

His watch says 8:01.

He shrugs, "Are you the production assistant?"

She shakes her head, "Nope, Caroline Forbes, I'm the female lead today, and working with you."

Okay.

Well.

Today was going to be a good day for him then.

She's absolutely _gorgeous_.

And he hasn't seen her around before so she must be pretty new to the company and the scene.

He smiles and holds out a hand, "Nik Morgan," he grins, "Pleasure, although I don't know how much work we'll be getting done today, nobody seems to be here."

"Oh..." she trails off, "You didn't hear? You know Cami right? She's contracted with Fallen Angel; she was actually the first girl-on-girl scene I did…"

And that's not making Klaus' jeans feel tight at all.

"Turns out, she's a uni student who was only doing porn to write an expose," she reveals, her eyes lit with excitement at the gossip,

"And she mentioned the company and named names, so Saltzman is throwing an absolute fit and Lockwood's probably being held up there."

He checks his phone and wonders petulantly how this new girl was in the know when he apparently didn't even warrant a bloody text.

"His production assistant Luke told me when he rang me this morning," she explains, just a hint of sympathy in her tone as she starts to yawn,

"After Celeste pulled out last night, they were going to get Cami to replace but when she exposed herself- no puns intended- they called me."

Klaus thinks back on the script he'd glanced over last night and recalls that today included the regulars and then anal sex.

Anal sex required an enema.

Meaning Caroline would have been up since 4:30 this morning.

Probably wouldn't have eaten much either.

And she wouldn't be able to until they'd finished filming.

He scrolls through his contacts, "Excuse me while I make a bloody scene.'

Two hours later, Caroline is lying on a bed, wearing only a red teddy and crooking a finger to beckon him over. He approaches with a grin and grabs her by her knees, pulling her towards him and holding her legs in the air as he slams his penis into her vagina, and she's wonderfully warm and tight and…

"Cut!"

 _Fuck._

* * *

 _Eighteen Months later._

Caroline gasped as Nik pushed her to her knees on the kitchen floor, his hands on her shoulders as she found herself at eye level with his erection, jutting out of his undone jeans.

She opens her mouth and…

" _Cut!_ "

She snaps her mouth shut with a confused frown, turning to face the director as he stepped around the camera crew,

"What?" she asked, trying to hide her annoyance.

The filming was already running three hours behind schedule and they'd had to redo each take at least four times, causing everyone's temper to start running high.

"Listen doll," the director threw up his hands,

"I need to see more fear in your eyes, right now all I'm seeing is sluttiness and that won't do with our audience."

Caroline huffed and, deciding that being an inch away from Nik's erection was not going to help her concentration any, put her hands up, gripping his forearms and he lifted her smoothly to her feet, making sure that she was steady in her heels before releasing her. She doesn't break eye contact with the director the entire time,

"I read the script," she told him, "It said that I'm the girlfriend, why would I be afraid of my boyfriend? Especially when I'm about to blow him in the kitchen."

The director rolled his eyes, "Because it's what men want to see, they don't get off watching whores suck cock, they can see that on HBO, they want to see terror in your eyes and Nik…" he turns to her co-star, "What the hell is with the hands on shoulders?! I told you that I wanted them wrapped around her throat and squeezing."

Nik scowled, "I do that and she won't be able to breathe, or take my cock in her mouth without gagging."

The director smiles, "Good, we want her choking and gagging, that's what people log in to see, now push her to the floor hard, squeeze her throat and shove your cock in, all the way in mind, we want to see her struggling to breathe and then hold her in place so she can't move, Caroline, try to show some terror in your eyes."

He turns to the film crew, "Alright, let's try this again."

Caroline looks down at the tiled floor and then to Nik,

"Try to avoid my pulse point." She whispers as he nods sympathetically,

"Tap my thigh twice if you're seriously choking."

* * *

As far as porn production companies went, Fallen Angels was by far one of the least exploitative in the Los Angeles area.

However, as mainstream media grew more and more sexually explicit, porn stars found themselves having to act out rougher and dirtier scenes.

Still, even though Caroline woke up the next morning with faint bruises on her throat, definitely not faint bruises on her knees and a soreness in her vagina and ass despite Nik's best efforts, she still reached for her phone eagerly to check the results on the video which had been posted last night.

She and Nik weren't _super_ _famous_ porn stars, although they both got steady work and had survived the porn industry for over a year which was pretty impressive considering the rate which new talent came in looking to make bank; but Caroline had noticed that whenever she was partnered with Nik that their videos always trended on porn sites within the week and with mostly positive reviews.

She checks pornhub first and closes her eyes briefly, saying a quick prayer out of habit before checking the numbers on the video.

 _One thousand views_.

The video hadn't even been up for twelve hours yet and it already had one thousand views!

Squealing and bouncing around the bed with excitement, Caroline checked the reviews page on sheporn before deciding that today was definitely the day.

* * *

Nik had a condo just outside town, in a suburban area with a park across the road and families either side who would probably be horrified to know that he was a porn star.

When he opens the door she can see that he's even more exhausted than she is. She knows that he'd been scheduled for three videos yesterday and the cocktail of Viagra, ecstasy and cocaine necessary for that kind of work always had a nasty comedown. Still, despite his surprise at seeing her on his doorstep, he manages a smile,

"Caroline, sweetheart," he leans against the door and looks her up and down,

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She rolls her eyes in good humour at his flirtatious tone, which is mostly just his accent,

"Can I come in?" she asks, "I want to talk to you."

He nods and leads her into his condo, hurrying ahead to pull one door closed and leading her to his open plan living room. She tries not to look too interested as she sees his place, they didn't see each other outside of work and actors in their industry rarely had co-workers over to their homes, preferring to party in clubs or bars and usually wanting to keep their private and work life separate.

Still, she and Nik had a good working relationship. A level of trust gained by looking out for each other on the often unsafe sets and the knowledge that they both got tested for sexual infections regularly.

It's what had given her the courage to come over with her plan.

"Can I get you anything?" he asks, "Coffee, tea?"

She shakes her head and sits down on his leather couch,

"Have you seen the numbers for our video?" she asks eagerly, disappointed when he shakes his head,

"I had a full day and an even busier night love," he yawns and sits down in the armchair opposite her, "I had no intention of hopping online today."

Her stomach sinks as she realises that she's interrupted his post-filming recovery but decides to keep going,

"We're trending," she tells him, "Even faster than the last time."

He smiles as if amused by her excitement, "We always trend love," he points out with a hint of condescension,

"We're young, hot, blonde, blue-eyed and white. We're always going to trend well."

She shakes her head, "No, but I've been looking at the numbers, the videos you and I do together are more popular than all the ones we do with other people combined." She reaches into her handbag and draws out the manila folder filled with paper, "And I printed off the top reviews on all our videos…well the ones that weren't just _'fap, fap, fap'_ repeated a hundred times," she handed it to him, "Read them."

He sniffs and blinks a few times to focus his eyesight before taking out the first sheet,

" _OMG, they're so freaking hot together…wow, I love watching these two fuck…yes, I love watching these two on screen but I hate how rough the sex is stay out of her ass Nik…_ " he chuckles ruefully,

"Would that I could 'Bored Housewife 97'."

"If you keep reading, you'll see that a lot of the reviewers are the same people, again and again," she tells him, "We have a fan base, women ship us."

He looks up, "Ship?"

"They like watching us together and imagining us as a couple," she explains, "Which got me thinking…our contracts with Fallen Angel both expire in six months right?"

He nods, "And I've heard we're going to be facing a hell of a pay cut, you're twenty-one in an industry of eighteen year old girls and I'm apparently 'too pretty' to be a stand-in for the male audience."

"Right," she sits on the edge of her seat, "We're going to be lucky if we're re-signed and if we aren't, we're going to find ourselves doing videos even rougher than the stuff we're doing now and you hate the violence as much as I do." She takes a breath,

"Which was why, I was thinking…we could start producing our own videos, get our own website, use our female fan base and make videos that appeal to them, no more violent, non-con but focusing on our ship, working exclusively with each other which is safer and we'll be in control of the scripts, only doing stuff that we're comfortable with."

She tries to stop her knee shaking with excitement,

"It won't be easy going at first but I've been doing research and we can use interns until we can afford to start paying people and I really think there's a niche in the market for well-produced relationship porn."

Nik is silent for a few minutes, simply staring at her and she is worried that he's about to laugh in her face before he speaks,

"If it means that I don't have to shove my cock into a girl's barely lubricated ass or drag her across the floor by her breast, then sweetheart, I'm in one hundred percent."

Caroline beamed with delight and after promising that she'd have the full business plan to him by the end of the week, she left him to his hangover and had to bite her lip to keep herself in control until she got to her car.

She had a good feeling about this.

* * *

Klaus watched as Caroline practically bounced to her car, unable to keep himself from smiling as he watched her drive away.

She even managed to make that look cute.

It was probably her aqua blue Prius.

When she was gone, he closed the door and groaned as he leant against the wall.

His hangover arse was feeling sorry for itself.

But even when he'd collapsed onto the couch and got himself comfortable, he couldn't shut off his brain.

Not after the opportunity that had just being dropped onto his lap.

His own production company.

He would get to choose what films he did, on safe sets and with co-stars who met his requirements.

It wouldn't be easy to get it off the ground but if he trusted anyone, it was Caroline overly-organized Forbes.

And, if nothing else, he liked working with her. She never looked at him with eyes of hatred or desperation when the cameras weren't panned on her. She was always friendly and always turned up on set freshly showered.

It was the little things that mattered.

He shifted position on the couch and wondered just how exactly this was going to pan out.

For starters, he had no idea how well they worked together when they kept their clothes on.

* * *

A/N- Let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

These days, people in the porn industry couldn't just turn up on set, act for a few hours and then go home and relax.

Not when so many new and fresh faces- or bodies- were being piped into the industry daily.

And that was just in Los Angeles. There was also competition coming from Eastern Europe where regulations were either lax or non-existent and amateur porn being uploaded to sites every hour.

Which is why, when they'd finished shooting, stars often reached for their phones before they'd even reached for their towels.

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

Klaus is swiping his screen with one hand as he pops the lid on a bottle of mouthwash with the other, not looking as he walks and he bumps into someone.

"Sorry." He mutters, still not looking up and he hears a snort,

"No problem," his co-star Veronica sighs, "Here, pose with me, will you?"

He fixes a smile on his face, moves closer to her and looks up to the phone she's holding on a selfie-stick, it flashes and he hears the click close to one hundred times before they drop the expressions.

"I'll tag you." she promises, before heading into the female bathrooms.

He waves absently and finishes his own twitter update before liking a few pictures on Instagram, updating his Facebook and finally grabbing the towel that the crew member was holding out to him.

The bathrooms weren't luxurious. Toilet, shower and sink. Usually he just got clean and took a longer shower when he got home, but today hadn't been overly messy and he's got the afternoon off before making a club appearance with some coworkers later.

The six hundred dollars he'd just made for that shoot would pretty soon be burning a hole in his pocket.

His phone buzzes and he thinks it's a notification before he sees Caroline's picture on the messenger app.

 _'Free in two hours? Mason cancelled on another shoot.'_

He's still reading the message when the director calls and promises to have Viagra and a thousand dollars cash waiting for him.

He quickly does the math in his head.

It was one pm now and by the time he got to the site it'd be two, he'd have to do paperwork, stills, intro scene and maybe even a soft-core version of the whole video.

Six hours gone and he'd have to go home, change and then go straight to the club.

"Throw in an extra two hundred and I'll do it." He swears, even as he's slipping into the cab.

* * *

 _Seven hours later._

"Oh my god!" Caroline bounces over to him with more energy than she should have considering she hadn't taken a hit of anything recently and just spent eight hours hard at work,

"I wanted to talk to you about _the thing_."

The amount of emphasis she puts behind those last two words is extreme to the point where Klaus wonders if they're about to talk about her business proposition or presidential assassination.

"But not here," she adds, taking his arm and dragging him from the house with more strength than her body looks like it should hold, "How about my place?"

Klaus smirks, "How about a bar? You just made five hundred bucks."

She shakes her head, "Nope, can't risk being overheard, besides" she adds, as the uber pulls up,

"I've got everything set up at home."

He ponders this as they settle into the backseat and make quick conversation with the driver.

"What is everything?" he asks as she pulls an alarmingly green smoothie from her duffel bag and offers him a sip before chugging half of it down in one go.

"Not here." she adds again and he begins to wonder whether she had taken something making her a little paranoid.

She lives in a small but neat apartment building, a walk-up to the fifth floor that has Klaus glad that he's reasonably fit. She waves at an elderly neighbor who is shuffling down the hallway, as she slips her keys into the door and Klaus looks about with interest as she invites him in.

Just standing in her living room has him feeling like he's taken a hit of caffeine.

Everything is matching, trendy and bright, even the darker tones seem to be popping against the wooden floor.

"Can I get you anything?" Caroline offers as she heads into the open kitchen, "Something to eat. Something to drink?"

"Two of whatever has you peaking right now?" he deadpans and she smiles self-depreciatingly,

"Sorry, I'm excited…hang on a second."

She pads into another room and he sits down on the couch, noting how comfortable it is and imagines taking a nap on it, but the only view out the window is of the building opposite.

He hears a squeaking noise and half-rises out of his seat as Caroline shuffles backwards into the room dragging a dry-eraser board with her.

"Okay," she claps her hands and dries them on her pants, "So, do you want me to begin?"

Klaus is staring at the board with a mixture of shock and awe, noting all the writing, the arrows and the nearly incomprehensible graphs and numbers.

He had his GED but he's not sure he'll be able to follow this.

"Bloody hell," He mutters, "Go on, but be gentle with me."

She smirks, "Never had a guy ask me that before."

"So," she points to the first part of the board, "This is our basic to-do list, things we have to achieve before we're ready to go, I've read up on production start-ups, guides for building your own business, and studied the corporation handbooks for some of the most successful companies in the industry. This is our timeline, if all goes to plan, we should be able to go live in eight months…"

She darts out of the room again and returns with a few heavy books which she sets down beside him, "You can read up on them if you like."

She turns back to the board and points to two rather large numbers, "Here's the amount we'll need to keep us afloat until we get investors and here's the amount we'll need each so that we don't go bankrupt before we can start paying ourselves a wage."

She looks at him nervously, "Um…so I factored in using interns, people who can't get work in the industry, and not having to pay them, but in keeping with the timeline, we may have to do…"

He smirks, "Gay porn?" he finishes for her, "I can handle that, and meet the targets."

His bank account tended towards the lower numbers, he liked to burn through his cash, but if he actually started working harder, four days a week instead of three and gay porn which paid more for both men and women, he would be able to fork over his half of the cash.

Caroline would have a harder time, women usually got paid two hundred less than their male counterparts, expended more energy and had more competition for the roles.

"Okay," she nods, "And we won't need an office to start with, we can use my apartment for meetings and rent houses from people willing to have porn filmed on their properties."

He looks around her apartment, thinking for a moment before speaking,

"You said that our female fan base likes us working together, right?"

"Uh huh," Caroline nods and scribbles a note on the board, "They 'ship' us!"

Klaus is never going to use that word, "Right, well, not to be a sexist pig but women tend towards storylines and men don't really care about décor unless it's bdsm, so can we not use the one apartment and just film in different rooms?"

Caroline blinks as she catches his drift, "Oh, you mean my place?"

He shrugs, "Or mine, it'll cut down on the cost and…"

"I can organize everything!" she claps her hands with an alarming amount of delight at the thought.

It's the final nail in the coffin of doubt that he might have had about Caroline being a control-freak, but considering that they were going to be building a porn production company- or adult entertainment production company, as he's sure she'd prefer to call it- from the ground up, he's more than happy for her to be in charge, especially because she seemed to have planned everything down to the last detail.

She darts out of the room again and he glances down at the books she'd left him. He wasn't much of a reader but if he was going half-in on this, with their immediate futures on the line, he could make an effort.

He opens the first book, reads the first page and immediately wonders whether an espresso or cocaine would be better for getting through it.

He flips it closed as Caroline settles down beside him on the couch, putting her laptop onto the coffee table and tapping away,

"So, I've also been doing some research into some smaller porn sites," she explains as she types,

"Ones more catered to what we have in mind, which is gentler porn, and I figured we could take a look at the videos…"

" _Together?_ " Klaus asks, raising his eyebrows and she nods in affirmation before turning to him in surprise,

"Wait, seriously?!" she says, "You can still get turned on watching porn?"

He holds a serious expression for about thirty seconds before the smile creeps up his face and he turns away chuckling, earning a whack across the shoulder blade for his effort,

"No," he admits, "I used to but after a while you either recognize the actors or spend the time analyzing the scene and figuring out how long the shot took or where exactly the camera man had to be positioned to catch the moment."

"Urgh," she sighs, "Me too, and the amount of effort you have to go to just to try and find porn that doesn't do anal? Honestly, I just read erotic novels now."

She pauses, pursing her lips, "Was that TMI?"

He shrugs, "We've worked together many times now, we're about to go into business together, I'm pretty sure we should be close enough to share details like that."

"Right."

She opens a few sites and he notes the design and the titles, and then the videos.

Porn typically isn't supposed to be humorous, but Caroline has a notebook on her lap, a pen in hand and Klaus can't resist making a running commentary on the videos they watch, some of it being helpful, but the rest are jokes and quips about the performances or the settings that has Caroline poking his arm and shushing him before cracking up laughing and joining him.

When his phone rings it surprises him and when he picks it up, not having checked it in five hours- a record for him since he became a social media slut- and realizes that he's late to the club appearance.

And it's pitch black outside.

"Bloody hell," he curses, "I have to go."

He types a message and tries to figure out how much time he would need.

Honestly, he'd much rather keep hanging out on the couch with Caroline, but this event is good publicity for him.

"Want to use my shower?" she offers and he shakes his head as he hurries to the door,

"I still have to change."

He pauses in the hallway and turns back to her, "When should our next top-secret meeting be?"

She bites her lip as she thinks and looks adorably focused, "Next week?"

He grins, "It's a date." he throws over his shoulder as he rushes down the stairs,

"No, it's not," she calls down the stairwell, leaning over the railing slightly, "It's a business meeting!"

* * *

 _Four months later_

"Where are you?" Caroline demanded angrily as she parked her car, "Seriously?! You _suck_ at punctuality."

On the other end of the line, Nik sighs, "I'm sorry, sweetheart, the shoot is running overtime, something about one of the cameramen's wife finding out about his career and threatening to leave him."

"Urgh," Caroline smacked the wheel, "How much longer will you be?"

"If you see me before next week it'll be a miracle." He groans before being interrupted.

She hears shouting in the distance and looks through the window to the building where they were just about due for a meeting.

It was in a less-busy part of L.A but with two entrances, one on the street and one more discreetly leading into a parking lot that was almost entirely shielded from the road by leafy trees.

The street-facing front was brick wall with 'Katerina's' written elegantly in metal to the left of the doors.

Nobody who walked past it could have guessed that it was a sex-toy store.

Owned by one Katherine Pierce, who had emailed Caroline three days ago, asking her to meet her.

"Listen, love," Nik says hurriedly, "I've got to go, but Katherine hates me anyway, so it's better that I'm not there."

Caroline frowned at this news, "Wait, why does Katherine…"

He'd already hung up.

She imagines kicking him in the shins and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down before climbing out of the car and striding across the parking lot.

She'd never been into Katerina's but it was hardly her first adult-toy store, however, when she does step inside she's presently surprised.

It wasn't tacky.

In fact, it was almost classy.

The floor and shelves were the same dark wood and there was black leather ottomans and armchairs scattered across the space. Everything was neat and sorted by category, ranging from beginners to advanced and the clothing section wouldn't have been out of place in a regular mall.

There was also a steady stream of female customers considering it was the middle of a workday, being served by young women in heels and simple black dresses, one of whom came up to her with a polite smile,

"May I help you?" she asks pleasantly and Caroline's smile is automatic,

"I have a meeting with Katherine." She explains and the woman nods, "Of course, right this way."

Katherine is standing at the registers in the center of the store, finishing up with a customer and she holds up a pointed finger as her employee approaches, waiting until she is done before turning to her.

Caroline's first impression, as she walks over is that Katherine must be confident.

She's wearing a sheer black lace gown with a neckline that plunged down to below the breasts with the nipples barely concealed by the pattern before meeting two silver hooks and flaring open again to reveal the matching black thong. It barely reached midway down her thighs, exposing miles of long-tanned legs down to the feet encased in Louboutin heels.

Her lips were dark red, her coffee coloured eyes smoky and lined, while her brunette curls shone in the mood lighting of the store. She was the perfect advertisement for her products.

And for sex in general.

"Caroline," she murmurs with a husky tone as she reaches her, stretching up to kiss her cheek in greeting, her lips lingering on her skin, "It is so nice to meet you."

She smells like cherry liqueur, chocolate and danger.

"Nice to meet you too," Caroline manages, clearing her throat, "You wanted to talk?"

Katherine hums and turns slowly on her heel, leading her towards two armchairs in a corner, and Caroline can't help but catch a glimpse of her bare bum and wonders if she doesn't get a little cold dressed like that.

Though she supposes when you're that confident, your own vanity kept you hot enough.

Katherine sinks into the armchair gracefully, crossing one leg over the other and Caroline feels about as sexy as a soccer mom in her regular clothes, as she sits down opposite her.

"I heard you and Nik Morgan are thinking of starting your own production company," Katherine says, diving right in,

"I'm interested in being in on the ground floor of this little venture."

Caroline blinks in surprise and gives a little head shake, "Wait, _how_ did you find out? Who told you?"

"One of the writers you interviewed came in to my store blabbing until I told her not to," she shrugs, the gown slipping down to expose a shoulder,

"But I am interested."

"In investing money?" Caroline prompts but Katherine pouts, "Not at first, but you aren't going to get decent investors for the first financial year unless your site gets enough views to exceed expectations."

"So..." Caroline trailed off, "How are you going to invest?"

"I want you to wear my lingerie and use my products exclusively, in return, I'll have a link to your site on mine and when you start running memberships, I'll offer a discount on my products for your members."

Caroline clasped her hands together on her knees, "That's generous of you." She says suspiciously and the corner of Katherine's lips tilt up,

"Not really, our two companies have the same target audience, I'll cut some of your costs but gain almost free advertising." she uncrosses her legs and Caroline gets a flash of the black thong before she crosses her legs again,

"You want to market to middle-income, mainstream American women between the ages of twenty-one and forty-five?" Caroline asks and Katherine shrugs,

"I call them vanilla-scented candles," she says, "Because you have to set the bitches on fire to make them feel anything."

Caroline smirks, "Well, I'll have to discuss it with Nik…"

Katherine pulls a face, "I'd rather you didn't, Nik Morgan is the worst thing to have ever happened to this country."

She leans back, "What exactly happened between the two of you?"

The brunette woman stands, "The only thing you need to know is that I'll be dealing primarily with you and avoiding him like an STI."

Caroline gets to her feet, "I'll let you know as soon as possible."

The smile stretches across Katherine's face and she leans in, pressing a kiss to Caroline's cheek,

"Thank-you." She whispers in her ear, her breath warm on her face and Caroline feels her nipples pebble in response. Especially when Katherine deliberately runs her eyes over her body as she steps back,

"I can't wait to see you again." She finishes, biting her lip and Caroline is left dazed to the point where she barely even realizes she's in the parking lot until she walks right into her car.

* * *

"It's a good offer," Caroline adds, after she's finished recapping the afternoon for Nik, who was lying on his kitchen floor with an icepack on his left shoulder.

"I think we should take it."

"Katherine Pierce is evil personified," Nik intones gravely, wincing as he rotated his arm,

"But if we keep it strictly professional, it should be fine."

Caroline frowned down at him, "Okay, seriously?! What happened between you two?"

He waves his hand, "We're just enemies love, loathe each other from now til death does its business and leaves one of us triumphant."

She shakes her head, "Okay, but you two are actually okay to work together?"

He snorts, "No, but that's why you're going to be the one handling her."

Caroline has a flashback to Katherine's bare bum and presses her lips together at the thought of handling her.

"We should definitely keep the relationship professional." She announces, "All our relationships until this thing is off the ground."

Nik winces as he shifts the ice pack, "I think it'll be off the ground before I am." He whines and she rolls her eyes, "Idiot."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N- There's no plot this chapter.

* * *

"Shouldn't we be filming this?" Klaus asks, with only a hint of a smile as he perches one knee on the bed and bends over.

Caroline looks up at him with a withering glare but he continues,

"No, truly," he grins, "if our audience is predominately female, surely they'd get turned on seeing a guy who knows how to make a bed?"

Caroline runs a hand over the fitted sheet before answering, "You know I've heard a lot of sexist things in this industry, but that might just be the worst."

She plumps a pillow before throwing it at him, "Put the cases on."

He catches the pillow and uses it to hide his chagrin as she leaves her bedroom.

Having taken his original idea to use her apartment to cut down on filming costs and run with it, Caroline was undertaken some low-scale redecorating so that their audience wouldn't be able to track down her home address.

And in her bedroom, that meant positioning the camera so that it caught the natural light from the window but didn't show any of the street outside.

Also, for an entirely different reason, new bedding.

Caroline hadn't wanted to use her own bedding for the video, or her own clothes or other bits and pieces which Klaus understood.

After all, there had to be a line between work and her home life, even if they were overlapping slightly.

Thankfully, Katherine Pierce sold a line of bedding, ranging from sateen to silk. She'd given them the cheap, fifty dollar sheets to start off with, and they'd be getting the better stuff when their company starting showing profits for both them and their business partners.

Klaus looks down at the purple fake silk sheets which weren't as tacky as he'd assumed they would be before heading into the living room where his coke was waiting.

He reached into his pocket for his credit card- which, ironically, he used only for lining up his drugs and sets up two tracks on Caroline's coffee table.

Being a gentleman, he'd offered some to Caroline but she'd turned him down, preferring to take a downer mixed with a shot or two of vodka to get her nice and relaxed.

He checked his watch, trying to calculate when the crew were meant to arrive and when he should take the cocaine and Viagra for maximum effect.

He figured that- thanks to Caroline's love of punctuality- he had about ten minutes to kill.

So, he blows out a breath, takes out his phone and tries not to hear the sound of Caroline getting ready in the bathroom. He'd showered and changed first, from a t-shirt and jeans to another, slightly cleaner, set of t-shirt and jeans with boxer briefs, because of course, she took a lot longer than him to get ready. Not only did she have to shower, but do her hair and make-up, which would have to be redone about five times during a normal shoot.

Six if there was a facial, but he didn't think that would be happening.

Though they weren't using her today, Caroline had sourced a script-writer from social media, a college student who wrote erotic fanfiction for free and was more than glad to sell them some scripts for twenty-bucks a pop. She'd had him read over first three scripts and Klaus had noticed a distinct lack of spitting, facials, footwork or strangulation.

It would definitely be a pleasant change of pace.

The rest of their crew were interns who, if they proved their worth and the company took off, would have jobs with them- and if not, they would at least have some of the five years' experience needed for entry-level jobs in their fields.

In this economic climate, the poor bastards were just grateful for the chance.

He and Caroline still had a little time left on their contracts with Fallen Angels and they were both taking as many jobs as they could for the money but they were doing their best to coordinate their days off so they could get as many videos ready for their site launch.

The secret was slowly getting out that the two of them were looking to set up their own company but people either didn't care, or didn't think they'd be successful enough to be serious competition.

Besides, the market out there was big enough for all of them.

Caroline interrupts him from his musings by coming out of the bathroom and padding over to the kitchen in a white lace open front baby-doll that barely covered the matching lace knickers and didn't at all cover her tanned limbs.

"Want some vodka?" she offers, reaching into the fridge and he shakes his head before readjusting his jeans. He heads over to the island as she sets up two shot glasses and he sees the label proudly announcing the fairy floss flavoring.

"Be thankful," Caroline tells him, catching his eye as she down the first shot,

"You're the one who has to kiss me today."

He hums noncommittally and edges around the counter to put his hands on her waist and steal a quick kiss, pressing his lips to hers and leaning back,

"You taste like sugar." he decides, licking his lips, and she rolls her eyes as there's a knock on the door.

* * *

Caroline lowered her eyes and gave a shy smile as Nik crowded her into the corner of her bedroom, resting her hands on his forearms as he holds her hips and began kissing her neck. She bites her lip and arches her back, giving a little gasp and biting her lip, turning her face towards the first camera but careful not to look at it or the two crew members behind it.

His right hand leaves her hip and trails, open palmed up her bare stomach, over to her left breast, still covered by her costume and squeezes it gently before moving up her neck to take her chin in his thumb and forefinger and turn her face back to him, holding her in place as he gives her a long, lingering kiss. She can feel his erection pressing against his jeans and wished they'd planned the day a little better. The two of them were so used to hard porn, where the foreplay barely lasted long enough for the coke to wear off that he'd taken the Viagra before the crew had even begun to set up. Poor guy had been hard for about twenty minutes now and they were still in the soft kissing stage. Hell, he was still fully dressed.

He teasingly takes one of the straps of her costume and eases it down her arm, kissing the bare skin before lurching forward, covering any lingering space between them and wrapping his arms around her, his hands delving under the flimsy lace and he turns them around so that her back his to the camera, he dips her slightly so her loose hair tumbles down and she bends her neck back artistically, hitching a leg around his waist as the second camera moves to catch them. He straightens her and she kisses him, more passionately this time as they grind their hips together and she reaches down to the hem of his t-shirt, pressing it against his bare skin as she slides it up his body, exposing him one inch at a time. He takes the material out of her hands and pulls it off, flinging it to the corner and they resume kissing as he moves her backward until her knees hit the bed and then she has to concentrate on looking sexy and in the moment while simultaneously lowering herself down slowly and not looking like she's gripping onto him for balance.

She's barely hit the bedding before the director- Luke- yells cut.

Nik rolls off her and exhales, pushing himself into a sitting position and grabbing one of the water bottles against the wall,

"Good?" he asks and Luke nods, "You guys are doing great."

Caroline takes the opportunity to duck into the bathroom to reapply her lipstick and do a make-up check. Everything was still in place and she looked deliciously rumpled.

More than that, when she bent down to get the clear lube off the counter, she realized that she wouldn't need it.

She was already aroused.

She blushed at that, in their line of work it was rare and a little embarrassing to get turned on during the making of a video.

She clears her throat and heads back to the bedroom, wincing sympathetically as she sees Nik tenting, "How're you doing?" she asks as she climbs onto the bed and props herself on her elbows,

"I feel like I'm in a wonderful nightmare," he groans dramatically as he leans over her,

"But I'll tap your thigh if it starts to head to priapism territory."

She throws her head back and laughs, only stopping when she sees the crew getting back into place,

"Nik," Luke kneels on the bed, "I want you to kiss Caroline a bit more, get her other shoulder strap down and then slip you hand into her panties…down not up," he elaborates, "And Caroline, I want to do the usual, whimpering, thrusting…pretend he's getting you off."

She nods to show she's understood and lies down as Nik props himself on an elbow so her body will be completely visible to the camera.

Luke gives the signal and they resume kissing a full minute before the camera starts rolling so it looks natural, and it all goes according to the script until Nik slips his fingers into her pussy and then curls them as he thrusts. Caroline gives a shuddering gasp and her eyelids flutter closed as she enjoys the sensation, her hips pressing down against his hand before she reminds herself that she's a professional and taps his shoulder twice.

It's their signal so he pulls out immediately and Luke says cut.

"You okay?" he asks Caroline, his eyes glancing at Nik's fingernails to try and determine whether it's one of the usual problems, but she shakes her head,

"I'm fine," she swears, looking at them both,

"He was just hitting my g-spot and I was getting close."

Luke makes a face at the thought and Caroline doesn't even need to look as she hits Nik's shoulder to know that he's being a smug bastard.

While even mainstream porn believed in the female climax, they were always faked because in reality they could be messy and usually, the actress was too tired or high to actually have a real response.

"Okay," Luke snaps his fingers, "Let's go from where we cut off and get the camera down for a close up between Caroline's legs."

Nik is fighting to keep his face blank as they rearrange themselves and Caroline glares at him,

"You even _think_ about making me cum and I swear, when I do down on you, you'll be done in three seconds."

He blinks and feigns confusion, "Is that meant to be a threat or a promise?"

She hits his shoulder again.

* * *

Two hours later, Caroline reaches up to grip the pillows at the head of the bed, gasping as Nik thrust deep inside her, he's holding himself on his hands as he moves, which looked great on camera but wasn't an easy position to maintain. Her legs are splayed open, her feet curling against the sheets and her hips are twinging in pain but she moans, looking up at Nik with what she hoped was an expression of sexy surprise. He blinks twice which is their signal that he's close and she arches her hips, panting and crying out as she fakes her orgasm. About a minute or so later, he groans as he cums inside her, dropping down to kiss her passionately and they roll over so she's on top of him.

They trade lazily kisses, their open hands trailing over his chest and her back until she rests her head on his stomach and closes her eyes.

" _Perfect_ ," Luke exclaims, turning to the cameraman, "Did you get a shot of Caroline's thighs?"

The guy nods, "Yep, looks good."

Caroline keeps her eyes closed for a few seconds longer before pushing herself up and running a hand through her hair,

"I'm hitting the shower." She announces but Luke shakes his head,

"Hang on, let's get some after photos."

She frowns, "Why? We did all the photoshoot this morning?"

"Because, you two look even sexier once the deed is done," he takes her by the shoulders and lies her down beside Nik, taking the bed sheet and draping it across them so that it barely covered their body parts, he began rattling off instructions and Caroline tried to look alternatively aroused, satisfied and coy whilst her limbs ached, various fluids were dripping down her thighs and the room reeked of sex.

Plus, she was starving.

When Luke finally calls it quits for the day, she barely even says goodbye before throwing herself in the shower and rejoicing in the hot water.

When she's cleaned up, both inside and out, she wraps her fluffy bathrobe around herself and emerges to find that Nik has changed the sheets for her.

"Thanks," she says as he shuffles past her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek,

"You have work tomorrow?" she asks as he grabs his jacket and pats his pocket for his car keys, "Yeah, but I'll see you after for one of your super-secret strategy sessions?" he teases and she opens the door, "Get out." She orders, smiling as he clatters down the stairs.

* * *

A/N- See, no plot.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N- Hey Everyone, because a certain site is being very very very very very difficult right now, my updates have been screwed up and I tried to fix them over several days to no avail. Will probably transfer everything to a03 soon.

* * *

Klaus was trying to not feel like a perve.

But when he was watching Caroline recline on a bed in nothing but a black chemise that was hitched up around her hips while she held a massage wand to her pussy?

It was hard- a lot like his cock.

The only thing covering her breasts was the black lace that left a rather large v down to her stomach and he wonders why he thought turning up to set this evening was a good idea.

After all, this was one of the situations where he was essentially irrelevant.

The Devil- or Katherine, as Caroline _insisted_ on calling her- had come up with a range of video ideas that would both advertise her products and draw viewers to the site.

Self-love videos, where Caroline used the toys Katherine provided to masturbate for the camera and show viewers how they were used.

Klaus had to admit it was a good idea.

The target audience they were after- the vanilla scented candles- were the ones who were very tentative viewers of porn, going to free sites and having to search long and hard for sex that wasn't disgusting, degrading or with excessive anal. These were women who wanted to find pleasure in watching porn and wanted to experiment with sex but needed the confidence to do so.

Their site, Mystic would provide that, with a few free videos and then the better stuff behind a paywall. Caroline and he would do videos showing them how to use products safely and then there would be a link to Katherine's online store which offered discreet shipping and packaging.

Essentially, right now, Caroline was as commercialized as one could get in porn.

And that _still_ wasn't hurting Klaus' hard-on any.

Thankfully, he's wearing jeans that prevent him from tenting so he doesn't look like an unprofessional dick- even though he apparently has one- and when Caroline finishes with a fake climax ten minutes later, he hands her a glass of water as she lies back on her bed.

"Doing great love." he tells her, as she pants and trembles,

"That's my third toy today," she groaned, "I'm _dying_ here."

He winces sympathetically, "Can I get you something?"

She gestures to the bedside table, "Spanish fly, chocolate flavouring."

He reaches into the draw and sees that the lubricants, oils and enhancers were all standing neatly, he picks up the little bottle and presses the dropper,

"Lift up your tongue," he instructs, kneeling on the bed beside her and she grins, opening her mouth in a perfect circle and curling back her tongue. He squeezes two drops under her tongue. "That's a pet," He praises her, tapping her jaw closed with his thumb, "Twenty minutes and you'll be good to go."

She pouts sexily, leaning on her elbows, "I have to change into my next outfit," she glances at the pile on the table out of view of the cameras that Katherine had sent over, "What's your favourite one?" she asks with feigned, wide-eyed innocence and he bends closer, letting the denim scrape her outer thigh and she bites her lip at the sensation,

"On _you_?" he responds, his voice a husky growl, "Anything that comes off quickly."

A pointed throat-clearing catches their attention and Luke taps his fingernails on his tablet,

"Do we need to turn the camera back on? Because if you two are going to give in to sexual tension, I'd prefer we make money off it."

Klaus grins, "We're fine, mate, just a bit of banter between two bisexuals."

"Right," Luke clicks his tongue in obvious disapproval, "Well, the site goes live in less than a fortnight and we still have three scripts to…hang on," his head shoots up as Klaus' words finally sink in, "You're _bi_?!"

Klaus throws him a teasing wink and climbs off the bed, heading to the table and grabbing the first thing he can reach, a red soft corset with rose pattern,

"You'd look stunning in this, love." He says to Caroline, dropping it on the bed and she begins scooting down to get to her feet.

Three hours later, the crew is making their way out the door, Luke still nattering on about how many more scripts they have to do and whether Caroline's kitchen will be big enough for the maid scene and Klaus pretty much pushes him into the hallway and locks the door in his face.

After they'd finished filming, he'd ordered Chinese take-out for everyone and begins clearing up the plates as she falls backwards onto her couch, she'd thrown on a pink silk kimono that barely touched her knees and Klaus is getting a pretty good view of what it was supposed to be covering. However, in their line of work, modesty quickly went out the window, occasionally it made a token appearance on a new set or if they were doing a new scene, but with their crew and in Caroline's apartment, it had become a distant acquaintance.

"You got work tomorrow?" he asks, sitting down on the couch and placing her feet in his lap and she nods, "Yeah, but it's a night-time schedule for some reason."

She finishes with a yawn, "You know, I don't think I could have another climax tonight, even if I wanted to."

He chuckles at that, "Something every man dreams of hearing."

She brings her heel down on his lap and he grunts but there's not enough force to cause actual pain.

"You did well, sweetheart," he offers as encouragement, "Think of all those future women who'll be able to get off on toys thanks to your hard work."

She puts a hand on her forehead, "Who knew I'd do my part for the sexual revolution?"

He pats her legs and checks his phone, "I should head off…"

" _Wait_ ," Caroline interrupts him, lifting her head to meet his gaze, "Do you think the site will be ready to launch in two weeks? Like, seriously, ready?"

Klaus pauses and settles back into the couch, "We already delayed a month so we'd have time to perfect the site, deal with any glitches and publicize more, we've got the videos we want to have pirated onto free sites to garner attention to ours, we've got a lot of videos up and ready…what more is there to do?"

Caroline huffs, "I don't know, it's just…I want everything to be _perfect_ , you know?"

He shrugs, "And I get that, love, but you've gone over everything with a fine-tooth comb and had me doublecheck to make absolutely sure, I think, aside from the videos we're going to keep making while we stagger releases to keep the audience, there's nothing more to do until we can start looking for investors and generating revenue."

"What about my ideas for another couple?" she suggested, "You know, we should really cater to a diverse audience."

He rubs the ball of her left foot to try and comfort her, "And I agree, but right now you and I are working for free because we're invested in this, I don't think we're going to find two other actors who'll be willing to work in the hopes of a future cheque."

She lies back down with a groan, "You're right."

He pinches her big toe, "And you're thorough, which is a good thing."

He stands up and leans over to kiss her forehead, "Try to get some sleep tonight," he takes out his wallet and checks the symbol on the pill before setting it on the coffee table, "This'll help."

* * *

"What if we're not ready?" Caroline blurts out, startling the woman who was six feet away from her and earning her a look of confusion and concern. Thankfully, she was quickly ushered away by the shop assistant who wanted to process her sale and close-up the store.

Meanwhile, Katherine who is standing on the other side of the clothes rack raises her head,

"Are you talking to me?" she asks, barely paying attention as she held up two costumes, comparing them, before putting one back and resuming her search,

"Yeah," Caroline continues, "What if the site isn't ready to launch? What if we need to do more videos, more publicity, or branch out and include another couple…"

"How many times have you had this conversation?" Katherine interrupts, draping one outfit over her arm and glancing up with a questioning glance.

Caroline's eyes dart down to her white heels in chagrin, "Like, two dozen times."

"And did anyone agree with you?" she asks, turning to the accessories shelf, her red peignoir lifting to reveal the black lace bra, thong and garters underneath.

"No." Caroline confesses and Katherine turns back to her with a satisfied smirk.

"Then the site is probably ready to launch," She says triumphantly, "I presume there'll be a pre-launch party?"

Caroline grins, "Yes, and _yes_ , you're invited."

"Wonderful," she then turns on her heel and begins sashaying over to the dressing room as the last assistant left for the day. "Now, try these on for me."

Caroline followed her into the small area and began pulling off her clothes, giving Katherine a pointed look as the other woman blatantly stared,

"Want me to wait outside?" she offers and Caroline gives it a moment thought before shaking her head,

"It's fine," she says, "I might need your help getting these costumes on…and off."

Katherine grins and leans against the entrance, not bothering to close the wooden door seeing as it was only the two of them in the store.

Caroline had the naughty maid scene with Nik and it had somehow gone from her in the kitchen into about an hour-long scene that was supposed to involve two costumes and two 'days'.

First, she needed the 'modest' maid outfit.

Which was a grey, skin tight dress that ended an inch below her hips, exposing most of the grey thong that came with it, with white fishnet stocks attached to the skirt by garter belts and a white apron that tied in a bow at the back. There was a decorative collar that highlighted her breasts and a tiny button between them that kept them from bursting out of the costume.

Caroline struggled to slip the button into its hole and ran a hand through her hair, deciding not to put on the white lace headband that would complete the outfit.

Three things had to be determined when using a costume for a porn shoot.

One- would her co-star/s be able to access her breasts, pussy and bum with ease?

Two- could she walk, breathe and have a decent range of movement?

Three- was it sexy?

Admittedly, the order of those requirements tended to change depending on the director of the shoot, but Caroline was pretty much in charge of her costumes at the moment, which meant she could prioritize how she saw fit.

Right now, she was pretty sure she was checking all the boxes. Especially if the heated look Katherine was giving her in the mirror was any indication.

She definitely needs to check her range of movement though, so she bends over, touching her toes and straightens up to stretch her arms high above her head.

"What'd you think?" she asks Katherine, turning around to face her, pulling innocently at the hem, "Will it work?"

Katherine bites her lip, as if thinking and raises her eyes, "I'm not sure," she murmurs, shrugging slowly and her peignoir slides off her shoulders, pooling to the floor and Caroline runs her eyes over the tiny scrap of black lace and ribbon masquerading as Katherine's thong.

"Let me get a closer look."

She steps into the small area, into Caroline's space and holds up her hands, "May I?"

Caroline nods and Katherine puts her hands on her shoulders, trailing down until she was palming Caroline's breasts, "We should make sure your nipples show through the material,"

She begins rubbing them in small circles and Caroline swallows, her tongue darting out to wet her lips as Katherine pinches her nipples, causing them to pebble and she gives a smouldering smile,

"Perfect," she whispers, "But can you take it off?"

Caroline presses on the button between her breasts and it slips free of its hook, "I think so?" she simpers, taking the collar and pulling it down, over her chest and stomach, down to her grey thong and stockings, which unroll as she goes until she's completely naked.

Arousal pools in her stomach and she feels it between her folds as Katherine takes the next outfit off the coat hook.

"Now, try this on." She orders and Caroline turns around to face the mirror, seeing her flushed cheeks and Katherine's chocolate orbs on her.

The 'slutty' maid outfit is a black chemise that had a built-in push-up bra with a regular strap at the back and a short skirt that completely exposed her bum, gathering into a bow to be tied at her lower back. And that was all the material that covered her back, there was a white triangle under her breasts that had a black satin bow and three buttons, and vertical, mesh gusset fell over her stomach to fall just past her inner thighs, but otherwise, miles and miles of skin were exposed.

"Oops," Katherine grinned as Caroline slipped it over her arms and hooked the bra, tying the bow messily behind her, "I forgot to give you the thong."

She sidles forward until her lace clad breasts are pressing against Caroline's practically bare back and her face appears in the mirror, her chin almost on her shoulder, "Never mind," she sighs, running a finger down over the side of Caroline's stomach left bare by the chemise until she reaches the hem of the skirt, "Shall I describe it for you?" she asks, her breath hot in Caroline's ear and she gives a shaky nod.

Taking the skirt between thumb and forefinger, she folds it back and reaches around with her other hand, "The triangle starts here," she murmurs, touching the smooth skin just above her folds, before slipping down to her clit, "And covers this," she continues, the pad of her finger rubbing the pearl and Caroline whimpers, pressing against her hand, "But it comes with a little hole," Katherine reveals, as her fingers slide between her thighs, "Which sits right…here."

Two fingers push into Caroline's vagina and she gasps, her pussy clenching around the fingers as they begin to pump in and out, "Do you like that?" Katherine hisses, "Do you want a thong with a gap so you can be touched without having to take it off?"

Caroline moans, riding her hand and tilts her head back, her hair falling down over Katherine's shoulder, "Now, now," Katherine teased, curling her fingers, "Look in the mirror, you have to know what you look like for the shoot, after all."

Caroline licked her lips, swallowed and lowered her head to stare into the mirror, entranced by her own eyes as Katherine's hand sped up, her thumb reaching up to rub her clit and she climaxes with a gasp, her walls clenching and her thighs quivering as Katherine cupped her, letting her come down from her high.

"So," Katherine began as she slid her fingers free, "Should I get the thong?"

Caroline pivoted slowly on her white heels, and ran her eyes over Katherine, making sure the other woman knew that she was undressing her in her mind,

"I don't want _that_ thong," she said with a pout, reaching down, she hooks a finger into one of the strings of Katherine's thong, "I want _this_ one,"

She hooks a second finger into the string on the other hip and leans closer, "Can I have it? Pretty please?"

Katherine gives a breathy laugh but nods, so Caroline begins dragging the lace down her thighs, slowly sinking to her knees and when she gets it to Katherine's ankles, she takes her right leg in hand first, under the pretence of lifting it out of the thong, looking up at Katherine she gives her a slow smile, "Thank-you." She says, before taking her left leg and removing the thong, but instead of releasing the limb, she drapes it over her shoulder, giving herself unfettered access to Katherine's pussy.

Slowly, she sticks out her tongue, the tip brushing against the folds and Katherine whimpers as Caroline stretches up her body so she can properly position the other woman over her mouth.

Katherine's arousal tastes sweet on her tongue as she swirls it from her clit down to her vagina and teasingly slides it into her pussy, flicking it quickly against her entrance in a move she knew brought women to quick climax. When she gets Katherine on the edge, she spreads her folds with two fingers, so she can suck on the clit.

Katherine comes with a curse and Caroline holds her hips to make sure she doesn't lose her balance,

"You good?" she asks, putting her left leg back on the floor and kneeling to rest her chin on her stomach, and Katherine strokes her fingers through her curls,

"Oh, I'm great." She replies.

Caroline takes off the maid costume, which somehow managed not to get stained during its first wear and changes back into her street clothes as Katherine lazily drapes the peignoir over her body, not bothering to tie it as she heads to the cash desk and begins noting the stock Caroline was taking with her.

"Thanks for that," Caroline said as she made her way over to the desk, running a hand through her hair as her sweat cooled on her body, "I really needed the distraction."

Katherine looked up from the computer with a knowing glance, "I could tell, and believe me, the pleasure was _all_ mine."

She grabs a velvet tote bag from under the counter, "You don't need me to box these up for you? Do you?"

Caroline shakes her head, "It'll be fine."

Katherine walked her to the door, giving her a quick kiss on the lips as goodbye before closing and locking up behind her, Caroline had parked on the street so she took a moment to breathe in the cool night air, letting it wash over her heated body before heading over to her car.

She felt fluid and languid and realized it had been far too long since she'd had regular sex outside of work.

She'd have to fix that.

* * *

Nothing proved the existence of God so much as Caroline Forbes on all fours on his kitchen floor while he got to stare at her bare backside and wet pussy.

Of course, there was the unfortunate presence of the film crew but needs must.

Caroline is running a soaped-up sponge over the clean tiles and arching her back with every movement, while Klaus takes a sip of the apple juice masquerading as bourbon in his tumbler and sets it on the kitchen counter before slowly sinking to his knees behind her.

As per the script, Caroline paused and looked over her shoulder with a curious but lust-ridden gaze,

"Don't mind me, Ms Forbes." He said and with a demur, "Yes, Mr Morgan." She resumed cleaning.

As quietly as possible, he unbuckled his belt, letting it hang loose on the sides of his jeans as he slowly pulls down his zip and reaches into his jeans, drawing out his already erect penis and taking it in hand as he strokes it a few times.

The black chemise Caroline is wearing covers absolutely nothing, not that the grey piece she was wearing earlier was a symbol of chastity but he has full view of her folds between her thighs and reaches out with a finger, ghosting it over her skin and getting a touch of the arousal there.

"Are you looking for something, Mr Morgan?" Caroline asks, not bothering to turn around, still scrubbing that same spot and he can hear the smugness in her voice,

"I was, Ms Forbes," he replied, positioning his cock a hairs breadth from her entrance and waiting, "But I think I've found it."

He pushes right into her and she cries out, her mouth and eyes bugging out as she stops scrubbing, "Mr Morgan!" she shouts, as he begins thrusting in and out of her, rocking her entire body with his movements.

"Oh, don't let me interrupt love," he grunts as he puts his hands on her hips for leverage, "You've got a lot of work to do today."

Caroline squeezes the sponge, a sob wracking her body as he pistons in and out of her but, like the script calls for, she manages to drop it back in the bucket and take it out again to resume washing the floor. Klaus sees one of the crew signal to him and he runs a hand over Caroline's back, snapping open the clasp of her bra and pushing it down her shoulders so that it falls down to her wrists, exposing her breasts.

This scene takes fifteen minutes, with Caroline making the required sounds of arousal as he screws her and when he slips his hand down to her clit, rubbing the nub between his thumb and forefinger, she gasps and squeals, which makes him feel a little better when she fakes her climax seconds before he comes inside her.

He sits back on the floor and Caroline puts the sponge back in the bucket before turning on her hands and knees to face him,

"Mr Morgan," she pants, "Your cock is dirty, would you like me to clean it for you?"

He grins and reaches around to grip her head, drawing her mouth down to his penis,

"Thank-you, Ms Forbes."

She begins sucking him off as one of the cameras zooms in on her pussy, as his juices begin to slide out of it and another camera focuses on their faces.

"And…cut!" Luke calls and the two of them break apart with a sigh of relief.

"I'm gonna need a minute if I'm going to come again," Klaus announces, using the bench to pull himself to his feet and grabbing a glass from the drying rack to fill with water.

He drains it in one go and refills it for Caroline who gets to her feet more slowly, a hand on her lower back as she twists and turns, "You okay love?" he asks with concern and she smirks,

"Yeah, I just have no idea how actual cleaners manage this." She comments, sipping on the water.

"Hopefully not with the owner of the house buggering them from behind." He quips and she snickers.

"Alright," Luke leaned on the opposite side of the bench, "So, Caroline, you suck Nik off, he's going to hold your head in place as he comes but Nik, no gagging her and at some point, pull out her bun so that her hair comes out and goes over her shoulders. Any questions?"

The two of them shake their heads and a few of the crew members step outside for a smoke break as the two get themselves together for the next part of the scene.

Klaus' eyes keep straying to Caroline's breasts and she catches him, raising her eyebrows,

"Is there something there?" she jokes and he smirks, "No but I wish my hands were."

"Just your hands?" she laughs, "Clearly you have no imagination."

Suddenly, she pauses and he's worried he's crossed a line but she's calling over Luke,

"Hey, when we've done this scene, Nik should pull me up, strip me and carry me over to the couch, we can make out for a bit and then he can put his cock between my breasts."

Luke looks at his tablet and then at the couch in the living area, considering the idea, "We can film the two of you till you get to the couch and then break for the day," He decides, "We're pushing six hours already and honestly, I don't want to injure something."

It was considerate of Luke to have their best interest at heart, but when the camera cuts and Klaus has a naked Caroline on his couch, his unionized penis doesn't realize it's done for the day. So, he limps to his bathroom as the crew clears out with the speed only unpaid interns can manage and tries to mentally brace himself for the cold shower he's about to endure when the bathroom door opens,

"Hey, Nik," Caroline calls, her arm resting on the knob and she's still completely naked which isn't helping dissipate his erection at all. "Can I talk to you?"

He grimaces, "Can we talk while I shower?" he asks and she saunters into the room, fidgeting slightly as she juts out a hip, "Kind of what I wanted to talk about," she admits, "I was thinking that we could take care of that together?"

She raises her eyebrows, jerks her chin at his erection and his hopes for the immediate future shoot skyward, "I thought we were going the professional business partner route." he reminds her, wondering what was wrong with him that he was self-sabotaging but she only shrugs,

"I'm not proposing or asking you to go steady," she laughs, "But, at the end of a shoot, if we're in the mood…why not?"

Why not, indeed?

He can't think of a single reason why not.

"Mind sitting on the sink?" he asks, tilting his head to the marble counter in question and she shakes her head, walking over and boosting herself up with ease, she opens her legs as he approaches and he puts his hands on her thighs, rubbing them tenderly as he leans against her, kissing her jaw and burying his face in her neck as he guides himself inside her.

She gives a little wince and he figures she's probably sore, so he goes slowly, moving steadily and raising his head to give her tender kisses, his tongue sliding against hers.

"Feels a little weird to be doing this without a camera." he whispers as he reaches up for her breasts and she laughs, leaning back against the mirror and giving him a new angle to work with.

"I feel like I'm getting a freebie," She agrees and he grins, turning his mouth to her breasts to suck and bite on the nipples and suddenly she's shuddering in his arms and squealing as she climaxes.

"That was definitely a freebie." She sighs with a messy smile as he pulls out of her,

"Can I finish in your hand, love?" he asks and she nods, "Yeah, sure."

She has a move that involves a flick of her thumb and a certain twist in her wrist and he's grunting as he spills into his sink, sighing and dizzy with relief.

"You're welcome," Caroline crows as he washes his hands, "And I told you so."

He wants to point out that he never disagreed with her, just that he had needed her expressed willingness but wisely remains silent on the matter, inviting her to stay for dinner but she waves a hand.

"I have one last club promotion with Fallen Angels," she says, "Mind if I use your shower?"

She stays long enough to get ready and he eats cold left overs while he watches her pour herself into a tight red dress that he's not entirely sure didn't come from a lingerie store.

"Oh," she pauses in the act of applying eye liner, "Um…about this casual sex thing, you should know, I might also have something similar going on with Katherine."

Klaus made an expression of disgust, "You have terrible taste, love."

She rolls her eyes and waves a hand, "Yeah, _yeah_ , deadly enemies, I get it, but will that be a problem?"

He shakes his head, "I have no right to tell you who else to go around with, long as you're safe and I'm safe, we're all consenting adults."

She grinned, "Great, but I'm guessing that's a 'no' on the three-way?"

He gave her a withering expression, "I'd sooner cut my cock off than stick it in that hellspawn."

The sound of her laughter echoes through his house for a little while after she's gone and he enjoys the sense of homeliness it brings.

For the first time in a while, his mind turns to art and he wishes he could paint the sensation that Caroline's Forbes happiness brought to those around her.

* * *

A/N- Yeah I did that.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N- Thanks for reading.

* * *

Despite what many people believed, Klaus' line of working did require some acting ability.

Certainly, nothing on par with the London West End, or even off-Broadway in New York and he probably wouldn't get any call backs for tv shows, but, still, some talent was required.

Unfortunately, not enough that when Caroline bounded over to him with two champagne flutes in hand and made him taste one after the other, before demanding which one was better, he could offer a decent lie.

"I honestly can't tell the difference, love." he admits and she glares down at the flutes with a frown,

"I think this one," she tells him, "It's less bubbly and is nicer even when left on a table for an hour."

"Then go with that one," he encourages, taking both out of her hand and leaving them on the nearest surface before striding into the beach front night club,

"Remember, sweetheart, these are porn stars, not politicians, as long as there's sex-themed cocktails and whisky for the pretentious, they won't care about the champagne."

She chews her lip but doesn't disagree so he tallies that up as a win.

For the last month, every spare moment not dedicated to filming or site building, Caroline had been running herself ragged planning the launch party, even though Klaus had found an event planning company that would have organized it all for her at a decent price, she liked to micromanage everything to ensure it would be perfect.

He'd offered to help and been put in charge of the guest list.

Which had been quite easy.

Actors in their industry relied more heavily on social media than actors in the mainstream industry, that meant frequent self-promotion at clubs and events.

So, he only had to order the invitations, design them, write up a predominately female guest list and coordinate with the guests and their agents to ensure they would attend.

They weren't going to get the most famous female stars, but the ones from the C-list down in this competitive industry were happy to spend a Thursday evening being photographed with cocktails they weren't paying for.

Especially when- in lieu of renting out the entire club- they'd settled for the more financially acceptable V.I.P rooms, which meant their guests would get to cut the line, and walk past the nobodies, up the stairs before dancing on the beachfront balcony almost out of sight of the rabble.

He'd also triple checked that the WiFi would be running for their guests, he'd even made the password their company name, so there'd be no reason for them not to be Instagram-ing every single second of the night and tagging either himself, Caroline or Mystic in the photos.

And hopefully, they could drink away some of their stress about their site going live at midnight.

There was nothing more to do on that front, they'd crunched so many numbers on so many different business programs that Klaus had come away from his laptop with a migraine and they had filmed as many quality videos as they could make in their time-frame. Katherine had been promoting them on her end and 'suggested' that her employees recommend the site to their friends.

He saw Caroline take out her phone and access the program that would keep track of their site views and membership sales, which she'd insisted on setting at fifteen flat-monthly for the beginner package for the next two months and they'd introduce more premium memberships later. It hadn't begun counting yet but she was already in the habit of checking.

Klaus comes up behind her and rubs her shoulders gently, "You want something to take the edge off?" he offers, "I have weed."

She shakes her head, "No, I'll need to be perky tonight."

He accepts this and looks around, noting that after the excitement of having porn stars in their close proximity had worn off, the staff setting up the event just looked bored. So, they probably wouldn't notice them sneaking off.

"Want another kind of stress relief?" he suggests, kissing the back of her neck and she leans into his touch but he doesn't pick up any lustful vibes from her,

"Sorry," she sighs, "I'm not in the mood."

He nods, not the least bit put out, "Okay. Is there anything I can do?"

She opens her mouth but before she can speak, he holds up a finger, "That isn't running the numbers again, it's too late now, love, come what may."

She runs a hand through her hair in frustration, "I'm going to…"

She snaps her fingers, "Pre-party media posts!"

He doesn't know what that means until she grabs her phone and begins snapping pictures of the champagne and realizes that she's generating interest before the event.

She really was at her best when stressed.

* * *

"What is happening?"

Caroline was behind the bar, mixing up Katherine's sex-on-set cocktail that the flirty bartender had taught her to make earlier, when her friend and business associate's comment has her looking up.

The guests had started to arrive.

"Oh…" Caroline nearly drops the glass and takes out her phone, "I mean…it is nine-thirty, the party is meant to start soon."

"I know," Katherine curls a strand of hair around her finger, "But who turns up to a party _early?!_ "

Yeah, that was a little weird.

But the DJ has a beat going and Nik is already greeting them, exchanging air-kisses with the women and back-clapping hugs with the men, directing some of them to the bar and others to the dancefloor.

Caroline recognizes a few faces but their names allude her so she falls back on the trick an Australian co-worker had taught her, only instead of calling them all mate, she calls the men handsome and the women beautiful.

She introduces Katherine who immediately begins making nice with the women, likely looking for future clients and the men almost as a collective, order whisky from the bartender.

Caroline notes that the guests are already a little tipsy beyond pre-gaming levels and comes around the bar, taking a glass of champagne and sipping on it as she finds Nik charming two women.

And she doesn't want to cockblock him but the night is young and he doesn't seem overly worried about closing that deal.

"Explain?" she requests through a toothy smile, as they shuffle in for a group photo.

"I staggered the times on the invites," he answers, as the girls hurry to the bar and Katherine drags two men out to the dance floor, "I made sure the ones that get sloppy early would get here before the party so that it's already going when the rest turn up 'fashionably late' and the ones who take a while to get into it will be turning up around eleven."

She grins and squeezes his hand, "Good call."

Parties in the adult film industry could actually be pretty tame, after all, they could film orgies and drink up in sex dungeons while getting paid for it during the week, so there was little they hadn't done by the time they got to a club.

If it was a company promotion and a lot of press around, they might play it up for the attention and to cater to the mainstream idea that they were all sex-crazed hedonists, but Caroline had wanted a tasteful vibe with only a hint of debauchery.

She reckons the party is hitting that note.

The dance floor is filled with hot men and women who are grinding against each other, a few making out in dark corners and there's some people having sex in one of the cubicles in the men's room, but that was to be expected in any nightclub.

She looks around and sees Nik on the balcony, he had a woman on his lap and there's the frequent flash of phone cameras as endless photos are taken.

She knows he's rolling on molly but he's keeping neat and she took a bump of coke with their people earlier so she can't exactly judge.

Their team had commandeered a few couches and were trying to network and drink at the same time, with moderate success and she checks her watch.

It was nearly time to launch the site.

They could do it by phone, all she had to do was press a few buttons on the screen and she had thought about having a laptop set up but had figured that would be too businesslike for a porn site.

But they did have a projector aimed at one of the walls by the seating area and videos would be playing for the rest of the night.

She searches the room for the few bloggers and press that had been invited, those who were used to reporting on porn and managed to write articles in an accepting, non-judgmental manner.

Jenna Sommers was one of them, and Caroline found her at the bar, downing a violet coloured cocktail and leaning very close to Katherine, who had her hand on the reporter's bare thigh.

Well, that was one way to get good press.

"Hi!" Caroline beamed as she reached them and gave Jenna's now empty glass to the bartender, who immediately began making another, "You having fun?"

"Katherine has been telling me all about your site!" Jenna exclaimed, "Made for the female gaze and no violence at all, I'm impressed."

That had been mentioned in the emails that Caroline and Nik had sent her but she supposed they weren't the first to have made that claim.

"We're about to launch soon," she says, "I'd be happy to give you temporary membership so you can see for yourself."

Jenna makes a noncommittal hum but Katherine's hand delves under her dress and she simpers, "That might be fun."

"Great!"

Nik meets Caroline in the middle of the floor, smelling of alcohol, weed and cigarette smoke but seemingly capable of standing and holding a conversation.

"Shall we?" he suggests, a bottle of champagne in hand and she nods, heading to the DJ booth on the slightly raised stage and the music begins to fade out. The voices continue for a little while after that and Caroline waits patiently for everyone to turn their attention to her.

"Hi everyone, I want to thank you all for coming…" she pauses and waits for the predictable jokes hollered at her by the men,

"Nik and I are excited to be launching Mystic, our own site for adult films, we've been going hard…" she pauses again for more laughter, "But we think this site is going to be great for those who are after something a little different than what's on offer on other sites."

"We want to thank everyone who helped us bring this to life," Nik adds, "And while we've loved working with you all in the past, and hope to see some of you again in the future," he raises his glass to those two women, "We know you'll be wishing us your best."

There's applause and he turns to her, "Shall we?"

She holds up her phone, which has been linked to the projector, so when she presses the button, the site shows up on the wall.

"We are live!" she announces and the audience cheers as the DJ resumes playing.

Nik kisses her cheek as the cameras flash and they delve back into the crowd, accepting congratulations as her fingers twitch, eager to start checking her phone.

* * *

The party begins to wind down at three am and Caroline sways over to the bar for a few last drinks, because she's spent the night dancing, grinding up against a few guys and girls whose names she wouldn't remember in the morning and left them wanting more.

The bartender is tired but begrudgingly pours her some shots from a near empty bottle and she downs them, barely even tasting the alcohol and she has a craving for food.

Someone bumps her shoulder and she looks over to see Nik leaning on the bar, staring down at an empty glass with a look of wonder that usually comes from tripping on something.

" _Pretty_ ," he mumbles and she snorts, "You good to go?"

She hums in agreement and judges the distance to the cloak room, deciding she needs one last shot before getting there,

"You aren't going home with…" she pauses, "I didn't bother learning their names."

He grins, "Neither did I but we had some fun in the men's room."

She sticks her tongue out at him, "Pig."

He accepts that and staggers across the floor, nearly falling into the cloak room and she hears the protest of the girl staffing it. She finds this hilarious and nearly chokes on the last shot given to her by the bartender.

Sheer miracle gets the two of them down the stairs and somehow, they manage to call a taxi, not wanting to risk a bad Uber rating through drunken antics.

Caroline knows they should probably get to their respective homes and start sleeping off what would be rough comedowns, but she instead slurringly navigates the taxi to the nearest iHop and the two of them weave their way inside.

The waitress doesn't seem overly impressed but they fall into a booth and manage to point in the general vicinity of the food section in the menus.

Caroline takes her phone out and puts it on the table, trying to access their site but accidentally going into her contacts and then into her fitness app.

After failing for a third time, she gives up and Klaus- who is giggling at the ring on his hand- takes the phone and hums along to the noises it makes as he presses the buttons.

"We have…" he holds it out and stares at it, "One thousand views."

She nods, "Not bad, we must be getting the…isn't it weird that it's four in the morning here and not in other states?!"

"So, strange," he agrees, "Time zones…how are they real?"

"Seriously."

That's the last thing Caroline really remembers. She has broken memories of paying for the pancakes in cash and arguing with the waitress over the money, and she climbed into a cab really, really carefully because she knew she was super drunk and…

She opens her eyes and the room spins, causing her to close them and fall back asleep.

It's only when it becomes too bright with the afternoon sun does she finally give up and make an effort to wake up.

Her mouth is dry and her head is pounding and there's someone in her bed.

But she realizes that someone is Nik and that's okay.

There's also a glass on her nightstand that had been knocked over, splashing water everywhere and she winces as she looks about for her phone.

It was on the floor and the battery was flat.

Sighing, she slowly lifts herself up, seeing that she fell asleep in her clothes and her panties were still in place but digging into her skin. Groaning, she internally debates whether to shower or eat first and her roiling stomach demands fruit juice.

There's a charger in her kitchen and she plugs her phone in, struggling to attach the cord properly and turn it on. With another groan of self-pity, she slides to the floor and pulls open the fridge, scrambling for the juice and resting it between her legs as she built up the strength to start drinking.

Whatever she had taken after the coke last night, she was never taking it again.

Seriously.

She jumps as her phone begins vibrating and falls right off the counter, the long cable leaving it hanging in the air as it lights up and the nausea in her stomach is now partly due to fear.

What was wrong?

Had the site crashed? Were the videos not loading? Had someone blasted them?

Oh god, had they broken some sort of laws somewhere?

She reaches over, pulls the phone off the cable and the screen immediately dies.

"Fuck." Caroline whispers, her hands trembling and her armpits sweating as she plugged it back in, holding it awkwardly at an angle as she waited for it to come on again.

When it does, it takes another minute to connect to her WiFi and she's thought of a thousand different things that could have gone really, really wrong.

She has emails, missed calls and messages across social media, she decides to check her text messages first and sees that she has dozens from Luke.

 _'Why aren't you or Nik picking up?'_

 _'Tell me that you're seeing this!'_

 _'Holy shot checking our ducking numbers!'_

What?!

Caroline's eyes blur as she scrolls through her apps until she reaches the one for Mystic and pulls up the numbers and…

" _Fuck!_ " she repeats, this time in disbelief.

Nik had been wrong when he'd read the stats last night, at four am, they'd had one hundred thousand views.

She checks out the comments for their top video and reads them excitedly,

 _'Wow, they're both sooooooooo hoooooootttttt!'_

 _'OMG, I love how this is focused on her and not the dude'_

 _'I 3 dis site, so nice to find vidz that ain't low-key rap'_

 _'Totes gonna buy the teddy she was wearing'_

Caroline's smile grew wider and wider as she left the site and began checking her messages, she had groups messages from the team gushing about the results, an email link to Jenna Sommer's glowing article about Mystic, which had been reposted onto other sites. She had another email from Katherine about increased traffic to her own page and a final one telling her that thirty memberships had already been purchased.

"Oh my God," she whispers and then with a squeal she jumps to her feet, sways dangerously because she's still drunk but excitement keeps her upright long enough to get to her bedroom and throw herself on the bed.

"Nik!" she shouts, smacking his shoulder, "Nik, wake up!"

He's face down in the pillow and groans, " _No_."

"Yes," she argues, "You have to check our stats!"

He groans again, long and wailing like a ghost but stretches out a hand, reaching under the pillow and drawing out his phone and pressing the button to show the screen.

She sees it's set to the page and he'd checked already this morning.

"But three hours ago!" she protests, "The numbers have nearly doubled."

He lifts his head and turns it just enough so he can meet her eyes, "Told you so."

* * *

A/N- Let me know what you think.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N- No smut in this chapter I'm afraid.

* * *

" _We're too white._ "

Time was, being woken up by someone barging into his room shouting would have terrified Klaus.

Now, he merely groaned as he ran a hand over his face and kept his eyes closed as Caroline turned on his bedside lamp.

"What?" he grumbled as she sat down by his hip, her legs curled under her,

"We're too white," she repeats, "And too straight, we're attracting some bad viewers."

Alright then.

He sniffed and opened his eyes, setting them on her and noting the trench coat wrapped around her slim frame.

"Are you naked under that?" he asks interestedly but she only rolls her eyes,

"Seriously?! It's like…forty degrees out there!"

And two-fifty-one in the morning according to his phone,

"We're too white?" he echoes and she nods, "Yep, and we're getting some male viewers who are way too into our…Germanic complexions."

He's pretty sure she means Aryan but is simply avoiding that term.

"Well, that's sadly a common thing for porn audiences," he notes, "Have we not covered this before? White or passing white actors always noticed a loss in followers or revenue whenever they're paired with non-white actors and typically porn stars consider interracial videos their final frontier."

Caroline moans, "I know," she admits, "But…I want our site to be diverse!" 

This again.

"We can start looking for actors now," he suggests, "As in, tomorrow, and when we finish our first year, in the black, we can offer them temporary contracts, depending on whether or not they manage to draw new viewers to our site or increase our numbers."

She beams and he realises that he'd said exactly what she'd hoped he would.

"I actually have some suggestions about people we could use," she reveals, dropping down onto her stomach, propping herself on her elbows and tapping on her phone.

"I've been going through the sites looking for actors based on their stats, if they have people who subscribe to them, watch them regularly etc…"

"Sweetheart," Klaus groans, "It is three o'clock in the morning."

She reaches over and pats his chest, "You said I could come over any time," she reminds him, "That's why you gave me a key."

"I gave you a key so you could let yourself in when we started filming here," he argues,

"Or if you wanted a booty call."

"We're in the first year of our business venture," she counters, a touch of self-righteousness in her tone, "We have to put in the effort or we'll go under."

Not bloody likely with their subscription numbers and the site traffic they're getting.

Then again, from what Klaus gathered, a lot of businesses in various industries could start strong and after two years had folded and been forgotten in favour of the next big thing.

If they did fail, perhaps Katherine would give them jobs in her store?

She hands him her phone and he squints, blinking repeatedly as he struggled to adjust his eyes to the bright screen. After a minute, she takes pity on him and darkens the screen, so he can look at it without his eyes watering.

He studies the pictures she shows him and gives his approval,

"They're gorgeous." he judges and she nods, "And I've watched their videos and studied their social media, I reckon they'd be good additions."

Humming to show he was listening, Klaus closed his eyes and shifted position, settling back in the pillows and letting the comfort lure him back to unconsciousness.

"Nik," she called, poking him in the arm, "Are you falling asleep?"

"Three in the morning," he reminded her, "Typically a good time for resting, love."

She scoffed, "Fine, but I want to meet these two as soon as possible!"

He might have said something in confirmation, he didn't really remember, he only registered that she reached over him to turn off the light, took off her trench coat, and crawled into bed beside him.

Probably so she could start hassling him again as soon as he woke up.

As long as that was sometime after nine am, he'd be fine.

* * *

If he'd thought about it, Klaus would have reckoned that starting his own porn site would have meant being in charge of his own schedule, choosing when to work and how many hours he did so.

Yet, here he was on a Sunday, pulling his car into the parking lot of Katerina's for a scheduled shoot.

'Public sex' was a popular category in porn, but in reality, filmed in heavily controlled scenarios- if the company doing the filming was in a regulated state.

God only knew what the hell kind of situations they were filming the 'public sex' scenes in when it came to unregulated states and countries.

They'd decided to film at the store, as it gave Katherine free publicity, the potential to draw more customers and it was a controlled environment for them to work in.

Especially because her store was closed on Sunday, so she wouldn't be losing business.

Although, most of her profits were being made online, Caroline had shown him the numbers that she'd sent them and explained that a lot of the customers that went through their site were impulse buyers, purchasing either the toys that had been shown in the video or the lingerie or costumes that she had been wearing at the time.

Still, she had enough foot traffic that she didn't want to risk loss of business by shutting down on a weekday.

He heads in the employee entrance, sending off a quick message to Caroline to let her know he'd arrived and hears the notification sound on her phone.

He follows it to a door, knocking briskly and calling her name, receiving a scuffle and high pitched 'Enter' in reply.

The room is an office, with a leather couch that Klaus wouldn't touch with a ten ft pole, but which Caroline is apparently okay being half naked on.

She blushes slightly, running a hand through her hair as she sits up, her perky breasts on full display as Katherine looks over her shoulder.

Her skirt was hiked around her waist and she was kneeling over Caroline's torso, so it didn't take a genius to figure out what he'd interrupted.

"Should I come back?" he offers politely as Caroline wipes at her mouth,

"Um…" she trails off, "Maybe?"

Katherine only rolls her eyes and clicks her tongue, "Ten minutes."

He shrugs, "Fair enough, I'll see if the crew is setting up."

The cameramen had arrived and Luke was already pacing the store, checking the script against the locations and double-checking that the light and positioning would work.

Klaus' costume required changing from a Henley to a white t-shirt and checking in with Luke before wandering the aisles, admiring the interesting or tasteful sex toys and taking photos of the bizarre ones to send to mates.

He was in the middle of admiring the complex manicure on the female rubber hand used for fisting when there's a commotion at the front door.

One of their people opens it to let them know that the store was closed, only to turn around a second later and wave him over,

"Hey man, Marcel and Aya here for you and Caro…"

"Hi!"

Klaus looked over his shoulder to where Caroline swept through the store, her clothes in place, her hair neat and her face slightly flushed but otherwise, there was no evidence of what she'd been up to mere moments before.

He was impressed.

Falling into step behind her, he shakes hands with Marcel and Aya, seeing a glint of surprise in her eyes when he doesn't go for the typical cheek kiss.

But Caroline had determined that they were going to win both actors over by treating them with equal respect.

"Thanks for agreeing to meet us," she grins, "Can we get you anything?"

Aya looks pointedly around the store, "Is that an actual option?" she asks,

"We have drinks," Klaus tells her, "Some basic snacks until we order food later, but there's a café up the street if you're interested."

Marcel is fine, Aya gives a complicated coffee order that seems to give one of their workers a traumatic flashback to their Starbucks days.

Katherine had set up chairs around a table with a red silk tablecloth that Klaus hadn't even known was an option in sex toys and equipment, and he'd checked under it earlier to see that the furniture was supposed to be used for bondage.

However, with Caroline sitting down, it suddenly loses any sensuality and takes on a business-like quality that he didn't think it was possible for a porn star to achieve.

Especially in an adult toy store.

"I've been following your site," Marcel says, "Your scripts are simple but pretty unique in our industry."

"Thanks," Caroline chirps, "That's actually why we wanted to meet with you both…"

"You want us to be part of your company," Aya interrupts, "You're hoping to attract the black version of your current audience, for which you need black actors."

Klaus has a pretty good poker face, he leans back in his chair but otherwise, doesn't react to Aya.

"Obviously you figured it out when we contacted you," Caroline guesses, "But yes, that's why we asked to meet with you."

"And obviously, we're both interested," Marcel replied, giving Aya a quick glance, "Otherwise we wouldn't be here."

Caroline threw him a grateful smile, "Okay, so if you're aware of our brand, you know we do videos that appeal to women looking for consensual, respectful porn. Right now, our main audience is white women, but we are looking to diversify and cater to more people."

"What kind of videos would you be having us do?" Marcel asks, resting his ankle on his opposite knee, "Copies of yours or…something else?"

"Something else," Klaus answers, quickly glancing to Caroline and receiving a nod,

"Right now, Caroline's doing most of our instructional videos, we don't really need to waste time and effort doing the same thing again, so we'd have you portraying a couple having consensual sex."

"That's it?" Marcel queried, a hint of doubt in his tone, "Regular sex?"

"Eventually we'll probably cover anal, but that'd be a few videos down the line and we won't have you do anything you're uncomfortable with." he offered as reassurance.

"What's in it for us?" Aya demanded, still clearly unconvinced,

"A three-month trial period on our site, a six-month target in site traffic and subscriptions that you agree upon with our company after which point, if you're successful you'll be paid the same rate as Nik and I."

"Assuming your site is still running next year," Aya points out, "And that we're okay with being used by white people to make profit."

"You're already being used by white people to make profit," Klaus argues, "Our industry is notoriously racist, statistically speaking you will both have much shorter careers than any white actors, be expected to perform more taboo and degrading acts, have people refuse to work with you because they don't do interracial porn and I checked with your agencies, you're both paid less than a beginner white girl doing regular boy-girl videos."

"I know this isn't ideal for you," Caroline interjected smoothly, "But we guarantee safe work places, control over your narratives and promise that with us you won't ever have to play stereotypes. Marcel," she turns to him, "You won't have to play a drug dealer, car jacker, or thief, and Aya, you won't have to play a maid, a slave or a third wheel in a three-way."

Marcel tilted his head in consideration, "I'm willing to give it a shot," he allows, cautiously,

"Provided there's a contract and share-options once that becomes available."

Well, that was one at least. Klaus reckoned they might have to go back to the drawing board for a female actress.

No doubt Caroline had backups planned.

She's standing up now with a smile, "Of course, this deal is on the table until the end of next week," she informs them, her tone friendly even as she makes it clear that there is a time limit,

"But you should stick around, meet our people and see how we work, Katherine Pierce provides us with our equipment in return for publicity."

As if she'd been waiting for this exact moment, Katherine sashays into the store, having changed into a blue dressing gown and matching kitten heeled slippers.

While she introduces herself and flirts wildly with both Marcel and Aya, Klaus and Caroline

"Think they'll drink the Kool-Aid, love?" he asks quietly as Caroline begins changing into the pastel pink bandage dress pulled right off the shelf that looked like it could come from a regular store, except that it had a hidden zip in the front that went from collar to hem.

"Hope so," she mutters, "Marcel is gorgeous, and I want our male porn stars to be hot, not just every guy stand-ins and Aya isn't conventionally beautiful but she's really charismatic on screen, which isn't something you see a lot in porn."

She did look like she should have been a stage actress, but Klaus figured none of them had chosen porn as their career goal in life.

Working in porn, you had to get used to being naked around various people pretty quickly, even on small, closed sets, there was usually one or two virtual strangers staring intently at you.

Caroline and Klaus had a good relationship with their crew and Katherine was more interested in her phone than she was in the shoot, so they do a quick walk-through with Luke and then get into position.

And he reckons it's a testament to how well they work together that they manage to stay focused even when he can feel Aya scrutinising their every movement from across the store.

Caroline is a little stiff when he puts his hands on her hips and backs her into the shelf of vibrators, kissing her softly as she pulls on the collar of his shirt. She remembers too late that she's supposed to start playing with the zip on her dress, tugging it down just a little bit to tease him and Luke calls cut.

"Okay," he says, coming over and lowering his voice, "We can do all the store scenes now and the sex scenes after all non-essential personnel have left."

There's a scene or two with Caroline walking through the aisles, picking up a few items of interest before she checks the lingerie, growing more aroused and stopping to tug down her zipper until the dress was open almost to the point of exposing her nipples, at which point, Klaus came back in, saw her and began guiding them to the change room.

He moves out of shot, sitting down and sipping on a bottle of water when Aya joins him,

"How long have you two been romantically involved?" she enquires.

"We're not," he tells her, "Just friends-with-benefits."

She crosses her arms, "I have no intention of mixing business and pleasure with anyone I work with."

"We wouldn't expect you too," he snaps, somewhat offended, "We're running a production company, not a bloody escort service."

Her perfectly groomed left eyebrow is raised, "Do you want the exact number of producers who have tried to make me have sex with them for film roles?"

Nope.

He knew the business was exploitative enough for white actors, he didn't even want to know how bad it was for actors of colour.

"You're never going to get a better deal than what Caroline and I are offering," he points out,

"You might deserve better, you might want better, but in this industry, you're not going to get it."

"I'm aware," she seethes, "And perhaps in time I will be grateful, but it still stings that two-white people are going to get applauded for being woke while profiting literally off Marcel and my backs."

He makes a noise of sympathy but doesn't offer anything else. They were in an industry of exploitation, with little to no means of getting out, even if they could imagine walking away from this life.

So, he watches Aya walk out the door, shakes hands with Marcel- who is much friendlier and enthusiastic about the idea, although clearly aware of the same issues- and wanders over to Katherine.

"What do you think?" he asked her, leaning against the counter and glancing back,

"I hate you." She commented, not even looking up from her phone.

"And I hate you," he replied, "but you're on the ground floor of this operation, so what do you think about Marcel and Aya?"

"I think that if it works, Caroline will then want to include more couples on your site," she says, "I'm guessing she either go with lesbian or gay actors next, the only issue will be expanding too quickly, and they'll all need original scripts and plots, otherwise you'll be accused of sitting on your laurels, being repetitive, whatever."

Tilting his head in reluctant agreement, Klaus watches as Caroline finishes her scene and bounds over to Luke, her enthusiasm and excitement for the future infecting everyone around her.

He supposed he would have to be the one to burst her bubble from time to time, keep her on the ground.

But it was worth it.

Especially when, for the first time in years, he was ending his work days without a pressing urge to drink or drug himself into numbness.

Caroline had done this for both of them, and he did love her for that.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N- Thanks for staying with the story everyone. I know a long hiatus sucks but it's hopefully over now.

* * *

Klaus had come to see that the world viewed the adult film industry in many ways, from a never-ending string of orgies, sex and money flowing in to a horror show of exploitation and trafficking.

What many failed to realise was that for a great portion of mid-successful actors like him it was simply a job.

Yes, there was sex, there was drugs, alcohol and a lot of self-promotion at clubs, events and orgies but at the end of the day- or the beginning, depending on what time he got home- it was a job he went to for the money and went home again to unwind.

Like any job, the day-to-day events could become rote and blend together, before he knew it, weeks had bled into months and Mystic was coming up on its first year as a production company.

Like most production companies both in the adult industry and the film industry, they'd had their flash in the pan success, something new and shiny for people to be excited by before the next trend came along, and they moved on.

As they weren't fools or egotistical enough to think they would be the porn equivalent of a major studio, without the massive funding and choke hold on the market necessary, they had done their best to plan for when they began to lose interest.

Having worked around the clock- and at one point there had been a video where they had literally worked around a grandfather clock- they had managed to ensure that when the majority left in search of the next big thing, they were left with a decent sized member-base and subscription numbers that weren't brilliant but weren't anything to stress over either.

Their main issue was what every adult film production company had to deal with, their short videos, the ones they made available without subscription to lure people in, were being posted on sites like youporn and pornhub without their permission and unless people were interested enough to follow through to their site, it led to loss of views and revenue for them.

They also had more successful companies copying their videos, not the actual scripts but they'd noticed a fellow pair of blondes signed with Fallen Angel getting a lot of work very similar to their own.

They said that copying was the highest form of flattery, but when it potentially cost them money, it felt more like an insult.

Still, they didn't have to worry about their profit margins to the point of losing sleep and at the end of their first financial year, Klaus was feeling pretty good about their prospects.

Especially because Caroline had run the numbers- more times than was strictly necessary or sane- brought in a financial adviser- whom Klaus had kicked out after he spent the meeting talking to Caroline's breasts- and decided that they could afford to buy a studio.

A physical building with offices, set and storage.

Caroline had hunted high and low, with binders that weighed more than the U.S Federal budget and was more heavily detailed, seemingly determined to view every potential space in the city until she found the absolute perfect spot.

After four weeks, when he couldn't stand the thought of another round of conversation of square footage, lighting, asbestos checks and/or location benefits. He went online, found a real estate agency that dealt with commercial spaces, rang the office and booked an appointment. Either by sheer luck, or by the receptionist having run a search on his name, he'd been paired with an agent who didn't view him as the personification of America's moral decline. All the agent cared about was whether they would be as above board and legal as possible for an adult film set to be.

"Look," she'd told him, "I'm not judging but if there is drug use, as long as it's not something that's going to make the news with police breaking down the doors, because it'd be bad publicity for us if our company was mentioned."

He'd assured her that drug use and other activities frowned upon by the public would be kept to a minimum, whilst still making and distributing porn.

In return, she'd shown him what had been a foundry once upon a time and had since been converted into an office space with a large factory floor, open plan offices and a large car park, only fifteen minutes from a street with restaurants and a small mall.

He'd liked the location, taken it back to Caroline who had then done further research- the original architect had been murdered by his wife and lover who'd then run away together- and it was in their price range, so they had read the contract twice, signed the lease and begun the slow move-in process.

There had been the basic stuff to do which Klaus had anticipated and then the things that had come out of left field for him. They had to partition the ground floor and build sets for them to film on, which could also be easily redesigned, they had to find providers for electricity, water, heating and internet, which was a lot more complicated for businesses than it was for personal use. They had to furnish their offices with more than what could be grabbed from a Walmart, which meant sourcing a company. Caroline brought her laptop and personal printer in, worked up a to-do list longer than a Tolstoy novel and assigned tasks based on ability, availability and role within the company.

In fact, a lot of Klaus' current sobriety could be attributed to her, because the jobs he had to carry out involved early mornings, late nights and not a lot of time in between to get high.

And then there were the neighbours.

They were on a street with a few other businesses, a storage complex, a publishing company, a nothing too exciting and they barely saw anyone for the first few weeks.

In fact, it wasn't until the ink on the lease was dry, the funds transferred, and they had finally managed to spend a day in the building without coming across something that needed to be purchased, built or brought from home that they received a letter.

On one of the few days Klaus and Caroline hadn't been in the office, one of the neighbouring business owners had come in to see what kind of business was being set up on 'his' street. From what their staff had gathered, he'd been huffing and puffing about the threat of competition for his landscaping company.

He'd quickly been disabused of the notion that they were involved in any kind of gardening and stormed out of the building.

The next day, they received a letter shoved under their door ordering them to vacate the property and take their business elsewhere because it was 'harmful' and 'damaging' for the other businesses on the street, with risk of criminality and prostitution.

They'd checked with a lawyer, who had told them that unless their neighbour was willing to take them to court with proof that their business had caused profit loss or rise in criminality in the immediate area- which would take months, if not years, to prove- they would be fine.

But the next morning, they got to work to find that someone had hurled a brick through one of their windows.

Caroline immediately went on the offensive, wearing a smile that terrified Klaus because it didn't reach her eyes, she'd ordered him to go home and put on his white button-down and nice jeans. She'd turned up at his place barely an hour later, looking for all the world like a Stepford wife in a fifties style white dress with blue flowers and her hair held back by a headband.

In her car were more cupcakes than she should reasonably have been able to buy at eight am on a Tuesday morning, along with enough wicker baskets that he felt entitled to make a joke about her having robbed the Easter Bunny.

But the murderous glare in her eyes told him this was no joke.

"This is war, Nik," she announced, her voice horrifyingly cold as she tied a pink ribbon to one of the basket handles,

"I'm not going to let some mean, judgmental _asshole_ try to drive us from our building, especially when I would bet so much money that he watches porn and not our porn either, but the hardcore gangbang stuff." 

He takes a length of ribbon and loops it around the handle, tying it into a perfect bow that has her eyebrows trying to kiss her hairline,

"I had an older brother once," He mentions as a throw-away comment, "And I'm with you Caroline, this is my company too, nobody is going to take it from us."

Caroline's plan of attack was simple. Go to each business on the street- save one, obviously- and with Klaus playing up his second-generation British accent and Caroline putting on all the charm of a pageant queen, they would introduce themselves to the neighbourhood, hand over cupcakes, and invite them to an informal potluck set for Wednesday night.

Clearly, they had beaten their bad neighbour in reaching out to the rest of the street, because when they meet the owners or the second-in-charge or whomever answered the door, none of them had the stunned or judgemental expressions that civilians showed when they realised what their profession was.

They were surprised and slightly off-put by the effuse of friendliness, but Caroline had been betting on societal expectations to enforce polite behaviour.

Except, as they return to their office, they see something strange enough to catch their eye. A balding man in a cheap suit crouching behind a car to try and spy on them.

"That must be the landscaper," Klaus mutters under his breath, "He's exactly as I pictured him."

"Be nice," she chided automatically, "Even if you're right."

* * *

It was strange to be organising a potluck with Caroline and their team, for so many reasons, it wasn't something that was regularly done within the industry. If they ate together, it was either out at restaurants or they ordered food in, possibly because they got excited when the cash hit their bank accounts, or because they were all on so many different fad diets that it was just easier for people not to cook. Caroline, however, rose to the occasion.

On Wednesday morning, Klaus found her on the ground floor of their building, in what had been marketed to them as a conference room but had been converted into a storage room and- he suspected- a place for their team to nap or slack off when they weren't needed.

Caroline had cleared it out and was now sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by boxes with the terror and despair inducing IKEA logo stamped proudly across them.

"You know, I could probably get you drugs that drive you insane," he comments, mirroring her position on the floor, "Surely easier and safer than assembling Ikea?"

She raises her head to glare at him, "Either you're here to help or you can get out and go double-check the RSVP's for tonight."

He considers his options, and while it would help to absolutely know the final numbers for the potluck, right now, he enjoyed hanging out with Caroline too much to waste an opportunity.

"What are we making exactly?"

"Conference table and office chairs," she answers briefly, using scissors to slice open the packing tape and reaching in for the instruction manual,

"Temporary ones anyway," she explains, "We need them for tonight but hopefully soon, we'll have better ones."

"Alright," he says, grabbing his own box and tearing into it with a lot less precision than she had, pulling out the instruction manual and nearly ripping it when it caught on something.

It made close to zero sense to him but there were pictures and supposedly the right number of tools and weird little pieces.

"You know, you can ask for help when you need it," he tells her, keeping his tone gentle and his eyes on the herculean task before him so that she wouldn't feel confronted or challenged.

"We're partners and friends."

She grimaces and he's not sure whether it's because of the conversation or the screw she's trying to get into place,

"It's been a long time since I could rely on anybody, I mean, maybe there were some people who'd take me to hospital if I was really desperate but the little things? Like this? I can't think of anybody who would come help me."

He knew the feeling.

"Well, if you ever need a ride to the hospital, let me know and if you need help assembling furniture, I'll do that too."

She flashes him a warm smile, her eyes lighting up and he feels a tug in his chest.

"Thanks," she murmurs softly before glancing at the hardware in her hand,

"And yes, you can make a dirty joke about the screw now."

* * *

Nik was surprisingly good at everyday charm.

That was something Caroline could easily forget.

In their line of work, they tended to be always on when meeting people, flirting, flashing bedroom eyes, pretending they were picturing the other person in the middle of a round of dirty sex, whether they were meeting with directors, producers, fellow actors or public, they had to sell sex and themselves as the best sex around.

Which sometimes meant that they forgot how to act around normal people and their intensity could be a little off-putting.

But Nik was having a conversation with the owners of the catering company four doors down about how the gluten-free and paleo-fads were affecting their business and the commercial kitchen.

Caroline herself had already won over the auto repair shop, even though the father and son who ran it had clearly been disappointed when they turned up to see her wearing regular clothes.

Meanwhile, her team were moving in groups of two or three, talking about their college days, or bitching about the housing market/economy/George R. R. Martin's procrastination.

Most of the people seemed surprised by how normally they were dressed and acting, as if they had been expecting breast implants, bleached blonde hair and a bimbo act.

The receptionist at the construction company approached her and after a few basic niceties, began asking her about her work and her site with the avid curiosity that they occasionally encountered with those who thought perhaps they too could become adult film stars or were just excited by the taboo nature.

Unfortunately, this poor receptionist was just a little too plain faced to achieve any sort of success in their world, so Caroline tried to play up the long hours, weird unexpected injuries and the general lack of sexiness in the job.

They then segue-way into the employment crisis for their generation and the universal two-year experience requirement for entry-level jobs when there's a loud click and then bright flash that has Caroline blinking spots out of her eyes.

She turns slowly, trying to determine who it was that was holding the camera when she sees the slimy, cheap-suited man who had been spying on her and Nik the other day.

"Can I help you?" she asks, trying to keep her tone civil even as her stomach coils in anger.

"Oh, I'm just taking photos," he answers with exaggerated casualness, "But you're _used_ to that, aren't you?"

Beside her, the receptionist is frowning, and she hears one of the male business owners muttering 'Come on, man.'

Nik cuts through the crowd like a shark through water, making his way straight to her side and positioning himself so that he's in the direct line of the landscaper and his camera.

"In our industry," he begins, "In this city, we don't take photos without people's consent."

The landscaper gestures to them, his hand starting at their necks and ending at their knees,

"Please, everyone knows you two take your clothes off for money, whores don't get to be uptight about photos."

"Oh, for God's sakes," Betty- the caterer- snapped, "Lay off will you, they've been nothing but pleasant since they got here and if a woman doesn't consent to having her photo taken, you have no right to take it."

"Why are you even taking photos?" her husband asked, "John, they're porn stars, who cares? As long as they don't have wild parties or block the street, it doesn't really concern us."

"If she doesn't want her photo taken, maybe they should go somewhere else," he snaps, "I was here first."

He sounded like a spoiled little boy in the school yard screaming because someone was on the same swing set as him.

"Seriously?!" she cries, "What do you even want photos for anyway? Just go online if you want to see me that badly."

John sneers at her, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

She's about to shout at him when Nik puts a hand on her arm,

"What Caroline and I do is no business of yours when it doesn't affect you," he argues, reasonably, "Especially when our site promotes healthy, consensual sex as opposed to…"

He lists three sites that seem completely random to Caroline, as far as she can tell, the only thing they have in common is that they're degrading and bordering on illegal. She's about to chime in with more mainstream sites when she sees that John has flushed deep red and then deathly pale and Nik is grinning triumphantly.

"When you posted abuse on our Facebook page this morning, I traced your IP address," he explains, "And then ran it through a site to see what your proclivities were. Must say, mate, even as a whore, I was shocked by your internet history and horrified. You might want to get a VPN unless your goal in life is to have the FBI breaking down your door."

John opens his mouth as if to speak but closes it and raises his camera one final time to take a blindingly bright photo before turning on his heel and pushing his way out the door.

Caroline turns her arm over to grab Nik's wrist with her hand,

"He posted abuse on our Facebook page this morning?"

Nik gives a half-shrug, "I suspected he might do something of the sort, so I monitored our various pages, deleted it the moment it showed up and then with a youtube tutorial and some help from Josh, traced his IP address and somehow accessed his internet history."

Her surprise must have shown on her face because his lips twitch in response, "I told you, sweetheart, you can rely on me."

* * *

Despite John the landscaper having caused a scene, or perhaps because of it, the potluck was a success and their neighbours were surprisingly friendly and accepting of their company.

Again, Caroline suspects that John was enough of an annoyance that anything that irritated him was welcomed by the rest of the street.

He tries to start a twitter campaign against them, but obviously he doesn't have enough knowledge of social media or even communications because his twitter account has thirty followers, twenty random and ten being his employees and family. He lists their business address but they had already planned to list on their site under their contact details anyway- once they'd hired a receptionist. If he was hoping that scores of protesters would come banging on their door, he was going to be sorely disappointed. They weren't anywhere near a church, schools or day care centers, any outraged pearl-clutching 'think of the children' warrior mom would have to go out of her way to find a reason to shut them down. And again, they were one porn company in an industry of thousands, one of a hundred in their city alone.

So, when she hears the buzz of the door sensor and heads through to the front to see a pretty, blonde young woman walking in, she assumes that she's an actress looking for work.

"Sorry," she said brightly, before the other woman could even speak, "We're not hiring right now, but if you leave your name and details…"

She trails off when the woman raises her head and if she's of legal age then she must have had her birthday yesterday, because she looks _young_.

"I'm looking for Nik Morgan?" she prompts, looking around the foyer nervously and Caroline does a little head shake as she tries to figure out what's happening.

Had Nik got a girlfriend he'd forgot to tell her about?

Seriously?! If they had to have the safe sex, STI chat she was going to be _pissed_.

"Caroline?!" Nik calls as he comes up behind her, "Remind me, were we introducing Marcel and Aya today or tomorrow? No-one put it on the boa… _bloody hell!_ "

He's staring at the girl, frozen to the spot when she squeals his name,

"Found you!" and throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and nearly knocking him over.

And Caroline is beginning to worry that there was a stalker he'd neglected to tell her about when he finally manages to find his voice, looking at her with wide-eyes.

"This is my younger sister," he stammers, still clearly in shock, "Rebekah." 

* * *

A/N- That happened. Thanks for reading.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N- Enjoy!

* * *

If being high maintenance with a flair for the dramatic had taught Caroline anything, it was how to handle a potential disaster before it blew out into a complete catastrophe.

Rebekah couldn't be more than ninety-pounds soaking wet, which is why Caroline was able to almost lift the girl off her feet as she dragged her into her office, slamming the door so quickly that she nearly broke her partner's face. Only a quick manoeuvre on his part stopped him from getting an intimate acquaintance with the glass and it bounces off his shoulder instead, leaving him to rub it wincing as Caroline pulls down the blinds, switches off her phone and, hands on hips, turns on the two siblings,

"What the _hell?!_ "

And she sees it now.

Not the similarity in their features, because honestly, she and Rebekah look more like siblings than those two, but the similarity in their movements, and she's seen the same expressions on Nik's face that she sees in Rebekah's now.

Shock and awe.

Meanwhile, Nik just seems to be in a state of shock.

He turns to his sister, "How did you find me?"

Rebekah is all smiles when she's looking at him, "Elijah's been looking for you for years, but nothing turned up but then my friend Aurora was talking about your site and she mentioned your name and how it was spelled so I googled you and then I took the day off school to come find you."

"You took the day off school?" he demands, societal outrage colouring his tones, the instinctive fury of a child wasting their potential.

And was Nik's accent going slightly British or was Caroline going slightly mad?

" _Seriously?!_ " she snaps, "How is that the part of this you're focusing on?"

She runs her hands through her hair and exhales, "Okay…it's fine, she hasn't been exposed to anything and she's not here to act so this isn't a crime, she's your family so we're not in any legal trouble and…I assume you had a plan?"

"Are you on drugs?" Rebekah asks with the bright naivete of the innocent youth.

"No, she's just type-A," Nik answers, "My plan, sweetheart?"

"Your plan for when your family found out you were a porn star!" Caroline elaborated, rolling her eyes,

"Seriously, keep up! Your younger sister is here right now, apparently there's someone named Elijah, is this going to interfere with Mystic or what?"

He clearly hadn't thought that far ahead, and the strength seems to leave his body as he plops down onto her desk, eyes wide but his face shutting down and after a minute, Caroline realises that this isn't just regular shock or surprise, this is a survival tactic.

An almost complete disassociation.

She doesn't know what to do and she doesn't know whether to search for the answers on her phone or on her computer, or whether the noise would startle him and…should she get him water?

She exchanges a panicked glance with Rebekah but sees only calm and compassion in her eyes.

This is something this girl has experience with.

"It's okay, Nik," she murmurs, sitting down next to him and putting her hand on his wrist, gently, a reminder of her presence that could easily be shaken off.

"Mikael's dead. He…there was a car accident, he wad drunk and drove right into a lake if you can believe it. Finn moved to Denmark and we never heard from him again, Elijah's the head of the family now and he misses you so much…for the longest time we thought maybe you were dead, he'll be so happy you aren't."

Nik's scoff of disbelief is almost heartbreaking, understandable, but heartbreaking.

"You do know what I do here, don't you Bekah?" he asks, "We make porn. It's healthy, consensual films but still porn."

She makes a face, instinctive societal disgust, but visibly swallows and soldiers on,

"At least you're not a prostitute…you aren't, are you? Because I suppose that'd be okay but as long as you aren't in it for the money…"

He smirks, "Not a prostitute…or a stripper," he reassures her, "I don't have the legs for it."

* * *

Even if they technically weren't breaking any laws, Caroline still didn't want an underage girl on their property, so she grabbed the first employee of theirs she came across, told them she and Nik were taking a personal day and then bundled the two of them into her car.

Nik follows on her heels but he's clearly still not firing on all cylinders and Caroline's slightly worried about how easily he's disassociating. Meanwhile, Rebekah is pouting, her expectations for this family reunion not being met in the slightest.

Her first thought was to head back to her or Nik's place, but she nixed those options quickly, not entirely sure it was safe for Rebekah to get their addresses. A café was her next idea but if the situation deteriorated, if someone called the police, the adult film stars weren't going to fare well.

She knew a couple of hotels that charged by the hour, where interviews were held, script readings, or where some stars just crashed or screwed when they didn't want to go home, but again, these weren't the places you checked in with an underage girl because the staff had been trained to be on the lookout for exploitation and human trafficking.

So, she's driving and running various locations through her mind, listing pros and cons for each until she sees a sign for a park and pulls a risky u-turn to get to the entrance.

It's early enough in the day that there are minimal young kids around and the only other occupant of the park was manning a coffee truck. Caroline deposits Rebekah at a table, nearly points and tells her to stay and frogmarches Nik to the barista.

She orders a triple espresso for herself, a Starbucks-esque flavoured decaf latte for Rebekah and a chai latte for Nik in the hopes that the warm milk would help.

"Anything I need to know?" she asks out of the corner of her mouth as their orders are being made.

"My mother died when I was twelve," he begins, in a toneless voice, as if reciting a password or phone number,

"When I was thirteen, my father drove me out to the woods like I was a dog he wanted to abandon, gave me ten dollars because that was all I was worth and told me that if he ever saw my face again, or if I ever tried to contact anyone back home, he would break my spine so I'd spend the rest of my life as a quadriplegic."

Caroline chokes on her spit and covers her mouth, forcing herself to get her breathing under control.

"Okay, well, he's dead so there's that," she answers, her voice a little too perky and just loud enough that the barista gives her a concerned look, "And your sister doesn't seem overly concerned about our…careers."

He glances over his shoulder to where Rebekah was holding her phone above her head in the easily recognizable pose for the selfie.

"You don't have to stay," he tells her, as if forgetting that she drove them here, "This isn't your mess to clean up."

She scoffs, "Seriously?! We're a team, and friends, we rely on each other and that includes when younger sisters turn up out of the blue."

"You're an only child though, sweetheart." He points out, sipping on his drink and she shrugs,

"Fine, if one of my parents comes to town, you'll be first person I freak out on."

He grins, "Deal."

Rebekah takes her drink with a pleasant smile and offers to reimburse her but Caroline waves her off, they have a moment where they expect Nik to start the conversation but he's still pulling himself back from the brink of his meltdown, so she instead turns to Caroline and point-blank starts asking about life as a porn star.

Thankfully, she's asking the same standard questions that the majority of people outside the industry ask, with no clear intention of delving deeper or becoming more involved than the occasional glance at a free video so Caroline gives her the basic answers.

She can feel Nik vibrating with nervous energy beside her, so she's not surprised when he interrupts mid-conversation,

"How is everyone?" he blurts out and Rebekah jumps, startled.

"Oh…" she stammers, "Uh…well, Elijah is a contract lawyer whose office moved from New York once the GFC hit and they had to rebrand. Kol is a useless sod who will probably have to buy his way into university. Henrik is super into Dungeons and Dragons, like he actually makes money off selling videos of how he…I don't know…passes levels. It's all above our heads but it involves socialising and we see him eat food, drink water and go to school, so we really have no reason to complain."

Her words display a maturity beyond her years, the voice of a girl who'd had to grow up fast when her parents had died, whose family hierarchy had rearranged itself to counter the gaps caused by their absence.

Caroline feels both impressed and a sense of pity for this girl who would never get to be as care-free as her peers.

As Caroline herself had once been.

Nik is asking questions about their family home, questions that were above Caroline's personal knowledge of his family history, which admittedly, went only as far back as two hours but she catches the nervousness in Rebekah's eyes, the way she weighs her words before speaking them, as if the wrong answer could drive away the brother she had been searching for all these years.

Perhaps he even realises that, picking up on her nervousness and adding anxiety to the mix, or the adrenaline as his shock wore off.

Either way, Caroline found herself reaching for her phone and pressing the sound button to make it vibrate,

"Oh crap," she gasps, "I forgot we had that meeting."

She begins standing and Rebekah and Nik half-rise from their seats, glancing across at each other with a shared mixture of relief and guilt in their eyes.

Neither of them wanted to be the first to leave, but they couldn't stay, they needed to deal with the emotions and ramifications that this encounter would have on their lives.

She makes the decision for them.

"Nik, you can uber from here," she informs him, "Rebekah, I'll drive you home."

The young girl starts, a small frown marring her pretty features as she recalls the same warnings Caroline herself was given all those years ago. Never to be in a car alone with a stranger, never to let them know where you lived.

"I'll drive you to a public place that you can get home from." She offers and Rebekah blushes but accepts.

They leave Nik hanging around the parking lot of the park and Rebekah chews her lip nervously as he recedes in the rear-view mirror.

"Will he be okay to get home?" she asks and Caroline smirks before forcing her lips into a reassuring smile,

"He'll be fine." She promises.

Nik had all the streets smarts of someone who'd frequently toed the line of the law combined with the bank account of a successful adult film star, even if his uber failed, he'd make it home in one piece.

That piece might not be sober, but Caroline would worry about that later.

Rebekah is chewing on a finger nail now, fidgeting nervously and Caroline keeps an eye on the traffic around them but braces herself for the next round of conversation,

"I'm sorry," she gushes, "I didn't mean…I've ruined everything haven't I?"

She sounded so heartbroken that Caroline considered pulling over the car and giving her a hug, but they were in a slightly dodgy area of town and she didn't want to freak the poor girl out.

"Not even close," she swears, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

"It's just…he's always been my favourite," Rebekah continues, "Elijah was too old, Kol is too much of a prick and Henrik feels like babysitting, but Nik loved playing with me and always had time for me and when I found him…I wasn't going to wait for Elijah to make the first move."

"Seriously, it'll be fine," Caroline promises, trying to keep her voice light to calm the girl down,

"In our industry, family encounters are like Halloween horror stories, this'll barely even rate a mention."

Rebekah settles down slightly and by the time Caroline drops her off at a mall, seems to be more interested in retail therapy than emotional retrospection.

She invites Caroline to get a coffee with her, but she turns her down, she's got one sibling back to a decent mental state, now she had to focus on the other one.

All the lights are off at Nik's apartment and when she lets herself in, she's not even sure he's home until she enters the living room, traces the shape of the couch and realises that it's bigger and lumpier than usual.

He was sprawled across it with his eyes closed and a tumbler of some liquid balanced on his chest, still full, so he must have poured himself the drink, got comfortable and decided moving was too much effort.

Caroline perched on the coffee table and took his hand,

"Are you okay?" she asked gently, and he shifted his feet slightly but kept his eyes closed.

"Haven't the slightest clue," he admits with a sigh, "I can't even think straight right now."

She nods, "Okay, I'm going to turn on the lights and get us some dinner, we can either watch some tv, or just go to bed and we'll deal with everything tomorrow."

She gets a small grin and a hand squeeze in response.

* * *

A/N- Thanks for reading!


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